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Let’s Get All the Facts

Hopefully, other Branford residents have been reading, as I have, Tweed Airport’s Environmental Assessment — a copy of which is available to the public at the Blackstone Memorial Library. This document provides new numbers; it’s more massive, including an eight-gate terminal and parking for 4,000 vehicles — three times more than initially proposed. I’m also concerned that Branford, and the potential impacts on our town, do not seem to be included in this study.

I live in Short Beach and serve on its Civic Association. Our community consists of approximately 2,500 residents of all ages who are active year-round, whether fishing, boating, swimming, walking, and biking. Route 142, called Shore Drive, bisects our community and sees a high volume of foot traffic. Route 142 is also a direct east–west route to Tweed; the proposed site for the new terminal on Proto Drive is less than two miles due west of us. We fear that the volume of ground traffic along Shore Drive will increase exponentially.

Because of our proximity to Tweed, our Civic Association wrote a letter last fall to the Federal Aviation Administration urging it to undertake an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which is a much more thorough review of the environmental and public health impacts of this proposed expansion, with input from local, regional, state and federal agencies. An EIS examines the cumulative and regional impacts in the many ways that surrounding communities like ours will likely be affected.

Join me at the Public Hearing on Saturday, April 1, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., at the East Haven High School to voice your concerns and advocate for an EIS report. Let’s get all the facts, and include Branford, so that we make the right decisions for now and for generations to come.

Peggy Carpenter

Branford