Friday, September 08, 2000
Lunken critics blast deal
They say compromise favors airport tenant
By Robert Anglen
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Politicians and officials of a charter jet company are touting a compromise with residents living in the flight path of Lunken Airport.
Problem is, those residents say there is no compromise and the deal outlined in a press release Wednesday was “shoved down our throats” over serious objections.
“The City Council is only looking to keep the company in Cincinnati, they are not looking at the community as a whole,” said Tony Giglio, spokesman for Lunken Neighborhood Coalition, a citizens group formed because of concerns over noise and growth at the airport.
“They gave Executive Jet Management everything they wanted: The company didn't have to give up anything,” he said. “Executive Jet Management flat-out refused to address our concerns.”
Another view
But Airport Manager Dan Dickten compared the list of “concerns” to a blackmail demand and said the group wouldn't be happy unless it was given control of all airport operations.
“Nothing was shoved down their throats,” he said. “I thought they left satisfied with what they had gotten.”
Executive Jet Management last week threatened to move 170 jobs to another state or county if Cincinnati City Council did not lift a moratorium on development at the airport and approve the company's expansion plans.
On Wednesday, company officials said they would stay at Lunken. They said that after a four-hour meeting, members of the Lunken Neighborhood Coalition agreed not to fight the company's expansion plans, in return for Executive Jet's written promise not to conduct engine tests after 9 p.m. and not to use 737s at its new facility.
Heimlich's view
The company also agreed to abide with any restrictions resulting from an 18-month noise study by the Federal Aviation Administration.
“We were told we didn't have much of a choice,” Mr. Giglio said, adding the company offered no concessions that hadn't been made before. “(Councilman) Phil Heimlich said the overriding sentiment of the council was to approve Executive Jet's request and we better come to terms.”
Mr. Heimlich, who facilitated the meeting, said Thursday that wasn't true.
“When I left that meeting, both sides were in complete agreement,” he said. “I sent a memo to council members today describing what occurred.”
Mr. Heimlich said the point of the meeting was to reach a consensus that would protect the neighborhood. At the outset it was agreed that if residents and Executive Jet could come to terms, then Mr. Heimlich would ask the council to waive its development moratorium.
“I still intend to do that,” he said Thursday. “Both the LNC representative and the Executive Jet representative said if they reached an agreement then neither side would try to change it after the meeting.”
The moratorium, approved by council on Aug. 2, was to last 30 days or until a citizen board was formed to oversee airport operations.
Feeling left out
But other residents living in the flight path said the Lunken group does not represent them, and criticized Mr. Heimlich for making deals on their behalf.
“I resent what Phil Heimlich did,” said Judy Zehren of Mount Washington. “There is no compromise with me.”
She said more controls need to be placed on Executive Jet and others operating at Lunken.
Mr. Dickten said a lot of what residents wanted would have been impossible to deliver and could have put the city-owned airport at risk for a lawsuit by Executive Jet.
“You can't make a local (regulation) that supersedes FAA regulations,” he said. “What Executive Jet wants is legal. Their operation is not going to impact these communities the way they say it is.”
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