A 25-year lease extension for the Vermont Air National Guard will be considered by the Burlington City Council on Monday, setting up another public showdown over F-35 fighter jets based at the city-owned Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport.
The proposal to extend the lease from 2048, when it’s currently set to expire, to 2073 was initiated last week by Mayor Miro Weinberger, who called the air guard an “indispensable partner” at a press event at the guard base on Wednesday with Vermont military officials.
But opponents are planning to rally prior to Monday night’s council meeting. Among them are James Leas, a resident of South Burlington, where the airport is located. He has long spoken out against the F-35s’ location there.
“I hope the City Council will view this as an opportunity to open an investigation,” he said. “Do we really need this? Is this urgent?”
Also planning to speak against the extension on Monday is Dan Castrigano, a Burlington resident who is part of the group Safe Landing BTV, a climate advocacy group focused on the Burlington airport. The city, he said in an online post, “must demand a non-flying mission from the Vermont Air National Guard.”
During Wednesday’s press event, officials were undeterred. The additional quarter-century would provide “predictability” and “stability,” and would free up $51 million in military funding, according to Gen. Gregory Knight, adjutant general of the Vermont National Guard.
In addition to the lease, Weinberger and military officials promoted a written agreement in which the air guard agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and noise.
Col. Daniel Finnegan, wing commander of the Vermont Air National Guard, said the guard’s efforts in addressing climate concerns and noise “are far beyond those seen in other military installations.” He said the Vermont guard is looking for funding for studies and working on procedures to reduce noise while “safely operating the aircraft.”
That includes keeping afterburner use on the jets to less than 5% of the flying time, with an average of less than 1%, Finnegan said. On fighter jets, an afterburner is a way to increase the power of the engine for a short period of time by burning exhaust gases, according to Purdue University.
The guard is also looking to expand its use of flight simulators, officials said.
“There have been advances in simulation that have allowed us to do more of our night flying in simulators and less in the actual real world,” Finnegan said. “And I know that may not be perceived by people out in the community, but it’s certainly something that we’re actively tracking.”
Air guard officials on Wednesday also gave a brief tour of some base facilities, including a solar power array that they hope to expand, and the air guard’s fire department.
The latter facility is intended for base and airport emergencies, but with mutual aid agreements with neighboring communities, about 69% of its calls last year occurred off base, according to Finnegan. If it left, Weinberger said, it would be among the “capital expenditures” that would have to be funded from other sources, including the city government.
Weinberger has also cited the promise of military funding as reason to extend the lease. A press release sent from Weinberger’s office last week said that U.S. Department of Defense regulations “dictate military installations must have more than 25 years remaining on their lease to allocate Military Construction (MILCON) funding.”
The $51 million, according to the release, would include about $7 million in renewable energy and clean heating as well as $32 million for new construction. It would be spent over a period of five years.
But Leas pushed back.
“So why do they need another 25 years on top of the almost 25 years they have if they’re only projecting further capital expenditures out for the next five years?” he said in an interview on Thursday.
Castrigano also shared a letter addressed to the City Council from Dr. Peter Bingham, a pediatric neurologist at the University of Vermont Medical Center children’s hospital. Bingham called noise pollution a “neurotoxin” and said that F-35 flights over residential neighborhoods should be discontinued.
Bingham wrote in his letter that noise pollution “decreases (children’s) reading ability, it messes up their attention span, it increases their tendency to depression, suicide. How much ‘economic growth’ could balance such costs?”
