Sounding off for 50 years

With airplanes taking off over their heads and rattling their homes, three Inwood residents helped found the Town-Village Aircraft Safety and Noise Abatement Committee 50 years ago.

The mission of the committee, which was officially formed on July 1, 1966, is to challenge the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Federal Aviation Administration to mitigate aircraft noise and address the environmental concerns of residents and business owners near to Kennedy and LaGuardia airports.

TVASNAC is made up of 13 Town of Hempstead communities: Atlantic Beach, Cedarhurst, East Williston, Floral Park, Garden City, Hewlett Neck, Inwood, Lawrence, Malverne, New Hyde Park, Stewart Manor, Valley Stream and Woodsburgh. Their representatives attend monthly meetings and meet with FAA and Port Authority officials.

“It’s 50 years of dialogue,” Malverne representative Larry Hoppenhauer said of the organization at its July 25 meeting, when it celebrated its 50th anniversary. The last two executive directors, Kendall Lampkin and Arnold Palleschi, were presented with proclamations from the town for their past service.

Hezzie Cibere, the TVASNAC representative from Inwood, where she has lived for 78 years, is the committee’s longest-serving member, having been involved for more than 30 years. The three Inwood residents who started the group in 1966, she recalled, were Joe Lewis, the first executive director; Henry “Right Turn” Rose; and Robert Check.

Rose, Cibere’s best friend, got her involved in the organization. He was nicknamed “Right Turn,” Cibere explained, because he said that if planes made a right turn over Runway 13, there would be much less noise.
“We get the takeoffs before anybody,” Cibere said of Inwood’s proximity to JFK. “We have the longest runway.” In her years as a representative, she has learned that longer runways maximize safety but also increase the volume of airplane traffic, which generates more noise.

Robert Seide has been involved with TVASNAC for approximately 14 years, first representing Lawrence, and now Woodsburgh. “In the 50 years since TVASNAC started, traffic at Kennedy has increased probably 50 to 60 percent,” he said. “The planes are a little quieter.” In his time as a representative, however, Seide added, the airline industry has focused more on fuel efficiency than quieter engines.

A noise study currently being conducted by the FAA and the Port Authority is expected to quantify and analyze the airplane noise over the communities closest to both airports. “Toward the end of the year, there should be more concrete results,” said current TVASNAC Executive Director Kevin Denning. Lampkin added that the Port Authority and FAA were at first hesitant about conducting the study, but were pushed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and work began last year.

Throughout her time with the organization, Cibere said, she has strived to achieve equal distribution of air traffic so that noise did not only affect Inwood. “You’re not going to stop the noise,” she said. “You’re not going to stop the airport.”
TVASNAC has a webpage on the Town of Hempstead’s website, www.toh.li/tvasnac.

Want to sound off about airplane noise? Send your letter to the editor to jbessen@liherald.com.