Maltese insists Tweed Airport expansion will hurt town

By Scott Benjamin

EAST HAVEN -- Republican mayoral candidate Sal Maltese believes that the expansion of an airport and the construction of an affordable housing complex could wreak havoc in this suburban town.

Maltese, a member of the Town Council and a former member of the Board of Finance, said he is “not for the expansion, period” of Jack Tweed New Haven Airport, which extends into East Haven.

The New Haven Independent reported in May that the airport is embarking on a $70 million privately funded expansion, with a new four-gate, 74,000 square-foot terminal and daily service from a new airline.

The online news organization reported that in return, Avports, the new owner, gets a 43-year lease on the airport. Tweed’s quasi-public authority will no longer call the shots.

“Nobody has said what is the economic benefit for East Haven,” said Maltese, who will face Democratic incumbent Joseph Carfora in the November 2 municipal election.

The New Haven Independent has reported that U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Hartford) and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-3) of New Haven have hailed the expansion, noting that, among other things, it would boost the bio-technology industry in Connecticut. A number of those companies reside in the metro New Haven area.

Maltese insisted the expansion will negatively impact the quality of life in East Haven, where homes shutter when the plans fly by. He said over the recent years there have been three crashes near Tweed.

“I could see this coming 12 years ago,” he lamented in an interview with East Haven Patch.

In 2009 the airport authority reached an agreement with New Haven and East Haven in which for allowing more of the airport’s runway safety area to be paved and therefore to accommodate more flights, the parties also agreed to a permanent moratorium on expansion attempts.

“We gave away a valuable bargaining chip,” declared Maltese, a 50 year resident, who owns the South Shore Laundromat and also works as a tax accountant. East Haven Patch has reported that he previously ran for mayor four times – as a Democrat, a petitioning candidate and as a Republican.

He predicted the expansion of Tweed will also impact revenues at Eugene Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, which has long been considered the flagship for air service in Connecticut.

On another subject, Maltese opposes the Planning & Zoning Commission’s approval of the 390-unit Sperry Lane affordable housing project that was submitted by developer Mark DiLungo’s Bluffs LLC.

The New Haven Register has reported that the initial plan had been for 504 units.

Maltese remarked, “It will add 500 cars a day. Are there going to be a need for more firemen and police officers? Are we going to have more kids in the schools? You also don’t want it near $250,000 or $300,000 houses.”

Regarding the municipal Pasquale G. “Patsy” DiLungo Veterans Memorial Ice Rink – which has been closed for 17 months – Maltese estimates that it will cost between $1.4 million and $1.9 million to renovate the deterioration from the leaking glycol refrigerant.

He said that before any action is taken, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection should test the soil nearby to determine if it might damage the Farm River.

How has East Haven emerged from the pandemic?

Maltese said that recently that New Haven County recently has had the highest pandemic rate in Connecticut.

“If you’re a well-known restaurant you’re going to survive,” he remarked. “If you are a small restaurant or gym, it is hard to survive.”

He said some employers have had trouble finding workers.

“There are people not going back to work,” he explained. “I don’t know if it is because they’re getting unemployment or they just don’t want to go back.”

Maltese acknowledged the separation between the Board of Education and the municipal government, but said that he is concerned that 50 percent of the public school students are not performing “at grade level.”

He said he believes that the educators “do a good job with the tools that they have.”

Maltese said that the schools budget needs to be increased at least minimally each fiscal year since there are built-in expenses, such as employee contract obligations.

The candidate said that he believes that the schools “need to focus on the pre-school through the fifth grade. “Because the hardest grades are the sixth, seventh and eighth because that is when they start to change.”

Maltese said that “there are a lot of good things in this year’s budget,” which did not increase the tax mill rate.

However, he said that he objects to leasing police and fire vehicles for seven years, since they often only last three years.

Maltese said he was disappointed in the budget from the fiscal year that ended in June 2020, which increased the tax mill rate during the pandemic.

East Haven ranks 37th in population in Connecticut, with its 27,115 residents, a decline of 1,334 from the 2010 U.S. Census. Interestingly, the town ranked one place ahead of East Haven in population - New Milford - has 27,923 residents over 61.2 square miles of land. East Haven only has 12.3 square miles - roughly one-fifth as many as New Milford.

As of 2020, the Secretary of the State’s office reported that East Haven has 8,488 unaffiliated voters, 6,236 Democrats, 3,966 Republicans and 348 registered with minor parties.

In contrast to the whole state, which former Republican President Donald Trump lost in 2016 and 2020, East Haven backed the real estate mogul in both elections.

“His policies resonated with East Haven,” said Maltese, whose campaign is being managed by Chris Lancia, who directed Republican Margaret Striecker’s campaign last year in the Third Congressional District, where she posted the best results for a GOP candidate against DeLauro in more than a decade.

Regarding Trump’s local popularity, Maltese said, “They were tired of politicians. He wasn’t a politician.”