What good are 60 vacated homes awaiting demolition in the high-noise zone bordering Burlington International Airport? Good for training exercises involving local police and fire teams, declares a resolution on the agenda of tonight’s South Burlington City Council meeting.
Not according to some airport neighbors and at least one city councilor who recall a training exercise last year that included gunfire and grenade explosions. Several nearby residents complained not only about the simulated shootouts but also about state and local officials’ failure to give advance notice that the area was to become a tactical training ground for camo-clad personnel toting automatic weapons.
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Maybe they should do all the training on Spring Street in Burlington, where no one will notice.
Can we figure this out? S. Burlington has a number of perfectly good houses which are going to be torn down. Chittenden County, including S. Burlington has a dire need for temporary housing for those unfortunate at any given time who need emergency housing. Instead of playing cops and robbers with these houses, why not fix a few up to the point that they can be used for temporary housing. Is the S. Burlington City Council so hell bend on destroying all its creditability with residents around the airport that it wants to throw gasoline on the fires of disenchantment? Come on City Council wake up.
What a tragedy that area of South Burlington already looks like a war zone and now it really will be, no one is thinking about people who still live there. Not a single one of our elected officials want to face the blight that the airport has brought upon us.