Next Wednesday, Gov. Peter Shumlin and the mayors of Burlington and Winooski will fly to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida to ascertain just how loud the F-35 fighter jets are.
The Greater Burlington Industrial Corp. (GBIC) — a nonprofit that advocates for economic development in Chittenden County and supports the proposal to bring the jets to Burlington — coordinated with the Vermont National Guard to arrange for the event.
GBIC has chartered a private jet and is picking up the tab — about $23,000, GBIC president Frank Cioffi estimates — to shuttle Shumlin, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger and Winooski Mayor Michael O’Brien to the base.
Shumlin and Weinberger both support bringing the F-35s to the Vermont National Guard base at the Burlington International Airport, though the decision doesn’t fall within their purview. The Air Force is expected to select a location for the base later this month. In addition to Burlington, guard bases in Jacksonville, Fla., and Eastover, S.C., are in the running. A robust movement opposing the jets has coalesced in Burlington and Winooski, where communities are concerned about the planes’ noise level.
At a press conference Thursday, Shumlin told reporters he scheduled the trip because “I think I owe it to Vermonters to listen to an F-35 as compared to an F-16 and see what it sounds like.”
Cioffi says they will spend about six hours on the ground, where they will compare the noise emitted by both jet types. The agenda includes “detailed briefings,” “physically inspecting the planes,” and “witnessing plane maneuvers.”
Shumlin said the trip is a matter of fulfilling a campaign promise and reconfirming his stance. “During the campaign I committed to a number of voters who were concerned about the F-35. … I said, you know, when I have more time, I want to go listen to them.”
“There’s a very divergent view among Vermonters about this airplane and I will feel much more confident about my support of it if I can hear it,” he said.
Shumlin left open the possibility he’ll have a change of heart — “If I can’t hear you when I come back, I’m gonna change my mind.”
Mike Kanarick, an aide to Weinberger, said the mayor is also approaching the trip “with an open mind.”
Opponents to the base aren’t as optimistic. Roseanne Greco, chair of the South Burlington City Council, called the trip “a complete waste of time and money.”
The personal opinions that the Vermont officials draw from a one-time listening exercise can’t supplant the findings of an Air Force EIS study on F-35 noise impacts, Greco said.
“What they think about the noise is not what the scientific noise studies are based on,” Greco said.”They are based on physiological, psychological, and cognitive effects that noise has on human beings. … They are based on the cumulative effect of numerous events, the duration of the event, the intensity of the event, and the startle effect of the event.”
