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The truth about Nov. 4 city commission special workshop meeting
Many unhappy faces walked out of the City Commissioners meeting Tuesday evening. What was supposed to be a “conversation” about reducing the airplane noise at our local airport turned into a one-sided message from the airport and commissioners - “your concerns are not our priority.”
Dozens of excuses mired in esoteric tech-talk hit the airwaves from less-than-understanding speakers Airport Manager Coyle and Consultant Mike Arnold. And how they love to talk tech. Problem is, they can’t find a solution. Truthfully, they are unwilling to do the necessary work to help the very neighbors who are pleading to them.
The special “workshop” meeting was scheduled to allow input from the community. But it was hardly an exchange. More of a brush-off. A mere 7 minutes were allowed for the community to speak before their voices were silenced. This may have had something to do with the roar of audience applause after the first citizen brilliantly presented a well-researched and passionate plea of relief from the noise produced by flight school air traffic.
But the applause served only to give our mayor an eagerly awaited segue to flex his commissioner muscles, and in a dad-like posture yell, “No applauding or we’re throwing everyone out.” Honestly! If only he’d shown that kind of passion for resolving the airport noise issue ... But he didn’t.
Over and over again, airport manager Coyle and his sycophant “consultant” offered nothing but excuses for abating the airplane noise. The result: “We the people” were drowned out by mighty-hammer-Antun, the deafening silence of Ayscue, and non-sequitur ramblings of Poynter. One commissioner seemed to care. Joyce Tuten. Thank you, Joyce.
Here’s the thing … to roll over and say there’s nothing we can do is pure laziness. The people deserve better. The commission and managers didn’t even ask to hear the whole story nor propose a future, more in-depth, meeting. So how can they be fully informed in order to understand the breadth of this issue and find real solutions? - They can’t.
UN-fun fact: Coyle and the consultant seem to think the noise is limited to the neighborhoods near the runways. It’s not. It’s a more island-wide issue. Here’s a challenge…try holding an un-interrupted conversation at Central Park or Centre St and 6th street. You won’t be able to. Flight school pilots will interfere. And that reminds me … where were the updated survey results that heavily favored the community’s number one issue? Noise!
Enough of their favorite excuse, “the FAA won’t allow it”. That’s’ like saying the Constitution was so perfectly written that no amendments were needed. Things change. Updates need to be made. Officials, this is your job!
A sadly laughable moment occurred when consultant Mike Arnold ‘consoled’ the room suggesting that maybe the home-owners have become more sensitive to the noise after they actually started living in the home. REALLY? So now airport Insultant Arnold is a therapist?
There is more dereliction of duty. The Commissioners appeared genuinely surprised about the airports noise impact. As if they were hearing it for the first time. They had not bothered to do their due diligence to intelligently prepare for this issue. This was to everyone’s disadvantage and ended up wasting time which could have been used to listen to more citizens’ concerns.
Here’s the request. Would you, commissioners, consultants and airport management be willing to meet with the citizens to thoroughly understand the scope of the noise issue? If you want us to respect you then respect us.
We can fix this if we work together and respect each other. But if the powers that be buy into their perceived limited solutions we have crash-landed.
Joey Daddario
25-year Fernandina Beach resident
