State Rep. Kurt Wright criticized ice-cream baron Ben Cohen, who in turn had indirectly accused Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger of lying.

And so it went at Monday night’s speak-out on the proposed basing of the F-35 warplane at Burlington International Airport. The Burlington City Council meeting drew a placard-holding, finger-wiggling, standing-room crowd that generated almost two hours of public comments — to which city officials listened but did not respond.

Ward 7 Democrat Tom Ayres had earlier withdrawn a resolution that would have postponed a council decision on stationing the fighter jet at Burlington’s city-owned airport. Ayres said private conversations had indicated that his proposal lacked support “across the spectrum.”

The council’s Progressives dissed the resolution because it did not explicitly oppose basing the F-35 at the airport. Democrats, who form the largest bloc on the council, had declined last year to oppose local basing, instead passing a resolution that amounted to a slightly weaker version of Ayres’ aborted proposal. Ayres said during a meeting recess that council Dems, including himself, remain unwilling to go on record against local bed-down of the stealth fighter.

Speaker after speaker sounded familiar themes Monday night as the two sides clashed in their third showdown at a local city council in the past six weeks. Winooski’s council voted 4-0 against the BTV basing option, while South Burlington’s council reversed its earlier opposition and passed a resolution on a 3-2 vote in support of the planes.

But the stakes are potentially higher in Burlington, which owns the airport.

Kevin J. Kelley is a contributing writer for Seven Days, Vermont Business Magazine and the daily Nation of Kenya.

16 replies on “Passions Flare on a Summer’s Night as Locals Debate the F-35 — Again”

  2. Why are you so angry. This is a serious subject. For some, it may be a matter of life or death.
    There are a variety of health and safety issues surrounding basing the F-35 at the Burlington Airport.
    Safety: Aircraft are much more likely to crash in their first 5 years of operation. The population density around the airport is greater than any of the other air guard locations. No fighter should be based at an airport until it has been operationally deployed at airbases for several years. They usually aren’t. If the F-35 has to be, Burlington is the location likely to produce the greatest tragedy.
    Health: The Air Force Environmental Impact Statement refers to a series of health issues. The most recent medical information in the EIS is from 2002. In the intervening years a number of studies have found stronger evidence of health effects including increased risk of heart attacks, increased incidence of high blood pressure, a statistically significant increase in low birth weight babies and an increased incidence of learning impairments in school children.over control groups. As these studies extend into longer time periods they are finding health effects occur with less exposure and lower noise levels than earlier studies.
    In 10 minutes on Google anyone who cares to can find academic research demonstrating a relationship between home values and airport noise. There is a debate over the most accurate way to calculate the relationship, but academic studies don’t doubt that it exists.
    The FAA assigns the label “Unsuitable for Residential Use.” All opponents have done is replaced invalid information about housing density in the zones with accurate information. The Air Force supplied the contours of the zones
    Finally, if you want to hold a referendum on the issue, it seems reasonable to give special weight to the voices of people directly affected.

  4. Your analogy is flawed. Bankers are not peddling health-destroying frozen fat to children and then complaining that noise hurts us.

  5. and anywayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
    the F-35 is the absolute, with out a doubt
    unequivicaly
    [how ever the heck you spell it, I don’t ‘peck and guess, and yes
    I never won the spelling beeeeeeee
    10 years of college wasted
    ANYWAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
    there are the best leaf blowers in the world
    trust me here
    other than that
    thom ‘goose again’ barney

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