The Winooski City Council voted unanimously Wednesday not to support the basing of the F-35 fighter jet with the Vermont Air Guard until more questions are answered.
Two days after the council heard comments from the public in response to the U.S. Air Force’s revised environmental impact statement, the board voted to pursue a resolution declaring that the city will not support a project with unanswered questions about the aircraft’s health and safety impacts.
“The vast majority of everyone in that room was concerned, certainly at some level, about the proposed basing,” said Sarah Robinson, a Winooski city councilor.
Last year, Winooski passed a resolution requesting more information from the Air Force on the issue. After reading the revised EIS, many of those questions were only reaffirmed, Robinson said.
The vote does not oppose the F-35 altogether. Instead, Robinson said the vote was a continuation of an ongoing discussion surrounding the issue.
“I don’t think that we opposed. Very intentionally, that word was not used in the resolution, because I think it’s a much more complex issue,” she said. “We know that it’s not a black and white issue.”
At the other end of Burlington Internal Airport’s airstrip, South Burlington voted in support of a proposal to replace the aging fleet of F-16s currently used by the Vermont Air National Guard at Monday’s city council meeting.
According to Brigadier General Dick Harris, of the Vermont Air National Guard, the F-16s are scheduled to expire between the years 2018 and 2020 and there is no current plan to upgrade the fleet beyond that timeframe.
Mayor Michael O’Brien, Deputy Mayor Sally Tipson and councilors Robinson and Seth Leonard voted 4-0, against the F-35 base proposal. Councilor John Little was absent from the meeting.