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Aircraft issues buzz concerned residents at town council

7 min read

A standing room only crowd mostly concerned with Federal Aviation Administration issues attended the Fort Myers Beach Town Council meeting Tuesday, Feb. 17 and voiced over 80 minutes of public concern over aircraft flight patterns, noise and pollution.

The agenda item, brought up several times at prior council meetings, was covered extensively by Councilman Tom Babcock and numerous beach residents. Nearly 100 people were in attendance – including local television news coverage – to listen to the continued debate.

The council has been on record for not taken an active part in the issue.

“This council has not had the chance to discuss the policy and establish a position that the majority of us has bought into before it ended up in the newspapers or television, and that has happened” said Mayor Larry Kiker. “I think that’s wrong. We’ve spent many hours in council chambers being educated on it. My thought is that this council needs to do a resolution that states our position and send it to the correct people and then follow it up appropriately. This has been going on for 8-9 months now.”

Babcock stated that the aircraft noise has ‘increased particularly since the Sept. 30 institution of a redesign in air space’ and that there is an ‘increase in concern in noise’ and ‘possible pollution impacts of the aircraft flying below the recommended 3,000 feet.’

“I honestly think there are solutions to have flights dispersed,” said Babcock. “Fort Myers Beach is approximately 10 miles away from the airport. Aircraft do not have to be lined up to the airport until the five-mile marker. And unfortunately, pilots have the freedom to pretty much do what they want unless somebody at air traffic control tells them that they should stay above 3000 feet.

“I assure you the President did not fly over the beach. He had clearance to take the shortest route to the airport. Those routes have been there for years but for some reason they have decided to push all flights over Fort Myers Beach.”

Babcock referred to ‘a study that was done by Lee County Port Authority, approved by the Board of County Commissioners and forwarded to the FAA clearly stating that no single community should be adversely affected by aircraft.’

“(The study) certainly did not take our area into consideration when the patterns were redesigned,” he said.

Beach residents voice concerns

Before Babcock’s speech, beach residents had their say during public comment.

Tom Cameron of Curlew Street received a call from Senator Bill Nelson’s office ‘requesting a retransmission of his signature’ so that data could be submitted to the FAA.

“My primary concern is noise,” said Cameron. “It makes it impossible to hold a conversation.”

Cameron then showed everyone the condition of his soffit vents from what he said was caused by fuel spillage. He explained that the vents were only six months old.

Tom Merrill of Indian Bayou used visual aids to get his point across. He showed a diagram comparing the flight plan before the redesign as opposed to the current pattern which he claims is not cost worthy.

“They’re going 10 miles further than they need to go,” he said. “It’s a total waste of gas and a total waste of time.”

Merrill also thinks the beach community should band together.

“A number of other communities have been very active in developing coalitions by themselves,” he said.

Former town mayor Dan Hughes of Randy Lane directed his attention to the noise pollution aspect of the low flying aircraft.

“The lanai is my office,” he said. “It is literally impossible to carry on an extended conference call without being interrupted almost every couple of minutes.”

Some residents mentioned calling Jim Haley of Lee County Port Authority and voicing their concerns.

Nicole Somsen of Buccanneer Drive said that Haley has acknowledged on certain occasions that aircraft are flying too low but could not offer any resolution.

“When I asked him who do I contact with regards to addressing this issue further, he could not give me a name at a division of the FAA so I could further pursue a complaint about this,” she said. “That to me was unbelievable. We need to continue pursuing this. I would be very interested to be involved in a citizen committee to address this. I plead with you to keep Tom Babcock, who has been well informed, involved in this issue.”

Jim Hanson of Avenida Carita, a 49-year resident, is thinking about selling his home and moving out of the area.

“My wife and I sit on our dock every night and have a glass of wine when it’s nice and peaceful,” he said “But every two minutes we have a plane flying right over the house and they fly until after midnight. I also had to wash this slime off my tin-roof boathouse due to an oily line covered by these airplanes.”

Bob Miller of Lenell Road experienced airline problems when he lived 15 miles away from O’Hare Airport in Chicago. Not wanting to make the same mistake twice, he researched the flight pattern from Marco Island to Venice and concluded that Fort Myers Beach would be a safe place to relocate.

“I was told by the FAA that the approved flight pattern was out over the gulf and back around perpendicular to the island,” he said. “Airport personnel told me ‘that’s not true’ and that ‘once they are on visual approach and they are released, they can fly anywhere.’ And they do. Most of the time they are right up the middle of the island. The rules have changed.”

Miller urged the council to have ‘an aggressive commitment to examine every possible course of action and take an active role to eliminate this financial and quality of life impact.’

“We’re counting on you, our elected representatives, to correct this infringement on our community, our investments, on the environment and on the peace and tranquility that we counted on when we chose Fort Myers Beach as our paradise,” he said.

Kathleen Cameron of Curlew Street has kept a log of airplanes going over her house and asked for a show of hands to see how many people in attendance were present for the aircraft issue. Nearly 75 percent raised hands.

“From 6:45 to 7:45 a.m. and every 12 to 14 minutes in one hour’s time, there’s a airplane going either from Albatross to Bahia Via to Williams streets,” she said. “I can hear them and they’re very close. (The show of hands) kind of tells you were the problem is and it needs to be paid attention to.”

Councilmen weigh in

Councilman Bob Raymond was adamant about his stance.

“I’ve had a total of seven calls (on this issue),” he said. “Out of those seven, five have told me ‘get off the subject and forget it.’ I’m being honest with you.”

Afterwards, Kiker commended Babcock’s undying effort but stressed the disadvantages of his actions.

“Nobody works harder than Tom,” he said. “It gets down to the fact that a council power of majority is more effective than a point man that is representing a seemingly special interest group.”

Kiker suggested to ‘regroup, review and reassess’ its position on the matter ‘so that we can indeed support it.’

“We’ve been left out, kind of, and that doesn’t make us strong or effective.” he said.

He asked for Councilwoman Jo List to increase her standing motion to include a council work session where a position can be established and include the right ‘players’ to be involved and have point man Babcock ‘lead the charge.’ Motion for workshop passed unanimously.

Babcock offered some final words.

“Things are getting worse,” he said. “Even when they started the redesign, there were only about a hundred flights a day coming in on this loop. Now there are 200, and you can probably add another 50 percent when they build another runway.”

Kiker expressed his disdain in the matter.

“This council did take the time to discuss what are issues are, agree on them and prioritize them,” he said. “With (issues) like Laguna Shores (dredging), we worked as a group and got it done. That’s the kind of activity that has to take place. This has not been prioritized and it’s getting in the way.”