Videos, petitions, fliers, hearings and protests are marking the final days before the public comment period on the F-35’s environmental impact statement closes Monday.
Opponents are making noise, staging protests and holding public forums. Supporters, for the most part, are quieter, circulating petitions and distributing postcards addressed to the U.S. Air Force.
Two municipal bodies also weighed in this week. The South Burlington City Council voted to support basing the F-35 in that city and the Winooski City Council voted not to support the plan.
“The comments have definitely picked up in that last two to three days,” said Nicholas Germanos, a civilian project manager for the EIS who reads the comments.
As of Wednesday afternoon, there were 258 non-postcard comments submitted to the Air Combat Command at the Burlington location, Germanos said.
Germanos said that 51 of the comments he has received during this public comment round expressed support for the F-35; 207 were in opposition. From the other two finalists, bases in Florida and South Carolina, Germanos received a total of four comments, all expressing support for the aircraft.
Germanos also said the recent city council votes will not determine where the aircraft is based.
“I would say, ideally, the Air Force would want the support from the local government, but it’s not necessarily a showstopper,” Germanos said.
However, he said he would listen to the recorded comments made at the meetings.
Children at risk?
Tuesday, opponents held a forum at the Chamberlin Elementary School in South Burlington on the effects of aircraft sound levels on children’s health.
Rosanne Greco, a South Burlington City Council member and critic of the F-35, said the effects of high sound levels on children are largely ignored in the draft EIS. She said many of the cited studies were outdated.
“That’s one of the key substantive errors we are pointing out to [the Air Force],” she said. “They did not include current, scientific research that shows that there’s overwhelming evidence that noise affects us physically. And in the case of children, it is far more dramatic.”
Health experts also spoke at the forum, titled “Last Call for Kids: A Public Hearing on the F-35 and Children.”
“That plan is bad for children, period,” said Dr. John Reuwer, an emergency care doctor in South Burlington. “There is no debate about that. The only question is how bad.”
Jean Szilva, a retired University of Vermont professor of anatomy and neurobiology, and Judith Cohen, a UVM nursing professor, also spoke.
Citing a 2011 World Health Organization study and a recent Environmental Protection Agency study, Szilva said sound from an aircraft causes physical and cognitive harm, especially for children.
The WHO study can be found here.
The Stop the F-35 coalition will host a protest on Church Street in Burlington on Saturday. The coalition and the Vermont Workers’ Center released a video on Wednesday that focuses on residents’ concerns with the basing project.
Support for the Guard
Proponents of the F-35 basing proposal say they are picking up steam as the deadline for comments nears.
Nicole Citro, creator of the Green Ribbons for the F-35, is continuing her campaign to provide supporters with the “easiest and fastest” opportunity to communicate with the Air Force. Citro is vice president of the Citro Agency, a South Burlington-based insurance company.
She is circulating postcards addressed to the Air Force, distributing petitions across Chittenden County and making Germanos’ email address available on the Green Ribbons for the F-35 Facebook page. Germanos says he had received 5,085 postcards from the group as of Wednesday afternoon, all from the Burlington area.
“My priority was making sure the men and women of the Air National Guard knew that their community was behind them,” Citro said.
She said many of her customers are members of the Guard. She said layoffs at IBM hurt her business and she fears a similar fallout if the Guard were to leave Burlington.
“I don’t want to go through that again with Air Guard members being laid off,” she said.
The Air Force has not discussed the fate of the Vermont Air National Guard if it were not to be selected as the base for the F-35 fighter jets.
“I don’t want to take that chance,” she said.
Citro did not attend the public meeting in Winooski because the vote there should be left to residents, she said. She did, however, attend South Burlington’s City Council meeting Monday night because her business is located in that city.
After this public comment period ends, the Air Force will issue a final Environmental Impact Statement, which will be reviewed by the public for 30 days. In October, it will issue its record of decision.
“It basically makes the Air Force’s preferred alternative the selected alternative, officially,” Germanos said.
Any challenge to the decision would then have to be taken up by the courts.
