Tuesday, January 24, 2017
“The airport will continue to administer the program until we bring it to an end,” Richards told Seven Days Tuesday.
The resolution does little more than create anxiety for neighbors who want to sell, he added.
“We’ve had people crying and we’ve had people really stressed out about this,” Richards said. “It’s unfortunate.”
Tags: Burlington International Airport , F-35 , noise , South Burlington , Gene Richards , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
The "short notice" deployment of members of the 158th Fighter Wing will likely last a "few months," Major General Steven Cray said Tuesday. The airmen will report to U.S. Central Command — which is responsible for the Middle East, Northern Africa and Central Asia — and is overseeing the fight against the Islamic State, among other initiatives.
The mission will "bring the fight to our enemies," Cray said.
Vermont officials were recently notified a deploy order could come before Christmas. Confirmation came Monday night, Cray said, and the deployment will happen sometime in the next few weeks.
The 158th Fighter Wing has 1,100 members. Roughly 100 are already deployed overseas on other missions, officials said.
Tags: Vermont Air National Guard , Steven Cray , Phil Scott , Peter Welch , combat , Middle East , F-35 , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
"I spoke poorly and I do apologize for that," he said at a Burlington debate hosted by My NBC5.
Zuckerman was responding to a May 2013 video posted to Facebook on Sunday by Nicole Citro, a Republican activist who has led the public push to base F-35 jets at the Air Guard's South Burlington headquarters. The video shows Zuckerman speaking out against the basing, which has since been approved, during a protest on the steps of Burlington City Hall.
"Some of the people that support F-35s say, 'This is about our safety and our freedom. Look at what they did on 9/11,'" Zuckerman says in the 27-second video. "When I look at what our planes did on 9/11 — they flew over a site that was already devastated by a terrorist action. I don't believe they stopped a single thing from happening. So let's not equate their existence with freedom when they're after the fact—"
According to news stories and the Air Guard's own account, Vermont's F-16s were among the first on the scene after terrorists flew two airliners into New York City's World Trade Center. They patrolled the city's airspace for 122 consecutive days after the attacks, according to a Guard history.
Tags: David Zuckerman , Randy Brock , Vermont Air National Guard , 9/11 , Image , Web Only
Thursday, August 11, 2016
The 35-page decision by Judge Geoffrey Crawford, released Wednesday, removes one of the last major impediments to delivering 18 F-35s, which are larger and louder than the F-16s currently based at the airport, to the Vermont Air National Guard in 2019.
A group of Winooski and South Burlington residents, along with the city of Winooski, sued after the basing decision, arguing that the Air Force had failed to conduct a thorough review of the environmental impact of the F-35s. They asked Crawford to block the planes and order the Air Force to conduct a new review, known as an environmental impact statement (EIS).
But Crawford was not persuaded.
Tags: F-35 , Vermont Air National Guard , James Dumont , Judge Geoffrey Crawford , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford heard arguments in a lawsuit accusing the Air Force of failing to conduct a proper environmental review before deciding to assign 18 of the F-35s to the Vermont Air National Guard. The planes are scheduled to arrive in 2019.
Opponents of the F-35s, which are louder than the F-16s currently based at the airport, are trying to get that decision set aside and to have a new review, known as an environmental impact statement, conducted. Residents of South Burlington and Winooski, along with the Stop the F-35 Coalition and the city of Winooski, filed the suit.
James Dumont, the attorney for the plaintiffs, said the Air Force left several vital considerations out of its required environmental review. Dumont said the Air Force ignored South Burlington and Winooski land-use regulations, and failed to examine the risk of a serious accident. He said the Air Force didn’t examine either the idea of soundproofing homes in the areas that will be most affected by noise, or buying and demolishing them, which has previously been done in South Burlington.
“There was no informed public in this review,” Dumont said. “The [environmental impact statement] was a sham. It did not present the minimum information … that should be part of the evaluation.”
Tags: F-35 , Steven Cray , federal court , Burlington , Winooski , South Burlington , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
The work is expected to begin this fall and continue through 2017 at the guard base, which is on land leased from Vermont's largest airport. The city of Burlington owns the airport, located in South Burlington.
The construction will not include the main runway, which military planes share with commercial carriers coming in and out of BTV, according to airport and guard officials.
Tags: Vermont Air Guard , F-35 , BTV , Image , Web Only
Monday, April 4, 2016
“The Air Force is facing a shortage of experienced, active-duty fighter aircraft maintainers as we transition from legacy aircraft to the F-35A,” said Lt. Gen. John Cooper, the deputy chief of staff of the Air Force for logistics, engineering and force protection, in a statement released Monday. “Adjusting the initial plan and slightly accelerating F-35A arrivals at Burlington Air Guard Station ... to fall 2019 will allow the service to stick to the overall F-35 rollout schedule, while capitalizing on the Air National Guard’s experienced fighter aircraft maintenance force as we put additional measures in place to increase the number of trained active-duty maintainers.”
The Vermont Air National Guard, based at Burlington International Airport, was the first reserve unit in the country scheduled to receive the next-generation fighter jets, despite vocal opposition from environmentalists and local residents concerned about noise.
Local opponents have filed a lawsuit in federal court trying to prevent the F-35s from arriving in Vermont.
The Air Force has said that 18 F-35s will be based in Vermont, replacing the F-16 fighter jets currently stationed in Burlington.
Tags: F-35 , Burlington International Airport , Vermont Air National Guard , Image , Web Only
Monday, April 6, 2015
Director of aviation Gene Richards says he plans to issue a request soon for proposals on a 110-room hotel. The building would likely be constructed over the airport’s southern parking garage, adding two more stories to the three-deck garage.
The project has already attracted the attention of developers, who would lease the space and bear the costs of constructing and running the hotel. The doors wouldn’t open before 2018, Richards said. He declined to say which companies are interested or who might be leading the charge. “It’s just in the beginning stages," he said. "You don’t know 'til you know.”
The hotel would employ as much soundproofing in the walls and windows as possible, Richards said, to reduce the possibility that guests will be bothered by air traffic. That traffic includes the roar of the F-16 fighter jets now flying out of BTV, or the louder F-35s that are slated to come despite local protest about the new military planes.
Housing Crunch
Speaking of airport noise, the long-planned demolition of 94 empty houses surrounding the airport in South Burlington is set to begin April 15. The airport has been buying up the houses for years under a voluntary federal program designed to help neighbors escape airport noise.
Tags: Burlington International Airport , home demolition. , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Council Chairwoman Pam Mackenzie's victory over two challengers in a race for a three-year seat ensures that the more conservative faction will retain its 3-2 majority. At the same time, Meaghan Emery's successful bid for a two-year seat will keep the more liberal minority at its current strength.
Emery, a former councilor, picked up 1,512 votes to the 1,439 won by her opponent, commercial real-estate agent Mike Simoneau. Mackenzie fell short of the 50 percent mark in her bid for re-election but still won comfortably, gaining 1,427 votes to 1,090 for Planning Commission Vice-Chair Tracey Harrington and 429 for former councilor Paul Engels.
Simoneau, a political ally of Mackenzie's, said the council chairwoman should not interpret her victory as a mandate. Emery agreed, suggesting, “A wise councilor will take heed” of the voters' refusal to give Mackenzie a majority of their votes.
Tags: South Burlington , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
We're in the home stretch of 2013, people. As we at Seven Days plot our year-end coverage, enjoy this week's news and politics stories:
- Figuring out how much was spent in support of and opposition to basing the F-35 in Vermont is a tough task.
- Meanwhile, the Air Force says the F-35 is definitely a go, but airport neighbors remain split on the jet.
- It's been a long time coming for Vermont's shoreline protection proposal. As the last northeastern state without statewide regulations, is 2014 the year?
- A recent workshop gave Vermont farmers the Myers-Briggs personality type test.
- In this week's cover story, learn how one artist/developer is doing his part to revitalize White River Junction, building by building.
- Meet the man whose job it is to test strains of medical marijuana for a Montpelier dispensary.
- And in Fair Game: After coming close last year, tax reform is looking unlikely to get much traction in the 2014 Statehouse session. Plus, find out why Rep. Peter Welch's anti-ethanol push is making for strange bedfellows.
Pick this week's Seven Days up in print, online or on the iOS app.
Cover photo by Sarah Priestap
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