Beverly Airport Ire The Topic Of Danvers Public Hearing

DANVERS, MA — A public hearing to create a list of "constructive criticism" the behalf of Danvers residents and officials toward the increasing traffic, pollution and safety concerns regarding Beverly Airport will be the subject of a public hearing on Dec. 20.

Danvers Select Board Chair Daniel Bennett said on Tuesday night that the public hearing would be set following the latest airport incident — the crash on takeoff of a gyroplane on Sunday that killed the 66-year-old pilot from Manchester By-the-Sea.

"We're going to invite the public for comment on the airport," Bennett said during Tuesday night's Select Board meeting, "to put together a constructive criticism list, if you will, for (Director of Land Use and Community Services) Aaron Henry to bring to the Airport Commission and the city of Beverly as they search for a new director."

Airport ire has been on the rise — especially on the Danvers side of the runways — as congestion has increased in recent years. Much of the concern has centered around flight students working on their "touch-and-gos" — a rapid series of takeoffs and landings —which residents near the runways have said contributes to endless noise and pollution concerns from the leaded gasoline that many small planes still use.

"The Commission did take a formal position at its last meeting to support the retirement of leaded gasoline," Henry said in an email to the citizens' group this week. "The group expects to continue to learn more about this issue and how we can help the nationwide efforts to make this transition as quickly as possible."

Henry also said that Commission also intends to address the "Good Neighbor and Noise Abatement" policies that residents and public officials have repeatedly accused pilots at the airport of not respecting and the airport management of not enforcing.

Several residents and elected officials brought those complaints to Airport Commission at a Sept. 12 meeting after which Henry said the Commission began to form a plan to collect more data so they can at least identify the parameters of the problem before they can put pressure on Beverly Airport and federal agencies to provide solutions.

The Danvers Select Board on Oct. 18 considered a series of proclamations endorsing the need for an expedited timeline for the switch to unleaded fuel, and noise adjustments, but ultimately agreed to hold the upcoming public hearing — where residents would be allowed public comment —which will hopefully include health officials, federal representatives and those from Beverly Airport.

At issue on many of the complaints, however, is that there is relatively little local control over the traffic level and enforcement of regulations at the airport. Most of the decisions regarding its capacity and flight patterns at made at the national level through the Federal Aviation Administration.

"I am working very closely with the state delegation on this issue and have been in contact with (State) Sen. (Joan) Lovely, (State) Rep. (Sally) Kerans and we're doing what we can with the FAA," U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Salem) said in a recent interview with Patch. "Unfortunately, we are severely limited with what we can do. I am frustrated by this situation.

"I wish I could solve this at the drop of a hat too."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)