WESTFIELD–Residents will once again be provided with the chance to have questions answered and voice any concerns they have about Barnes Municipal Airport’s noise mitigation program on Jan. 11.
The control tower and a plane hangar at Barnes. (Photo credit: Dan Desrochers)
The public informational meeting will be on Jan. 11, starting at 6 p.m., at North Middle School. The meeting is scheduled following a request from the Federal Aviation Administration due to the length of time that has elapsed since the plan was modified in December 2015. The discussion will be focused around the noise exposure map from December 2015, which is the basis for the program.
“We had originally agreed another public meeting would not be necessary because we had one in December (2015) showing the contour map, but because so much time has passed–it’s been a whole year–they wanted another public meeting,” Jane Verbeck, Wyle program manager, said.
The meeting will be led by Wyle Acoustical Engineering, which has been overseeing the entire noise mitigation process for the city. On display at the meeting will be the noise contour map; a question and answer portion will also be part of the meeting. Verbeck requests that all questions and comments be limited to 3 minutes to allow for maximum number of participants.
The contour map–also known as the noise exposure map (NEP)–has been OKed by the FAA, and was originally presented in December 2015, after modifications were made and additional homes were added to the acquisition list. Currently, 217 homes are potentially eligible for noise mitigation efforts, with 25 homes being eligible for acquisition and demolition.
The NEP measures sound based on what Wyle senior construction engineer Melvin Baker called “day-night level contour (DNL).” The DNL is measured through a mathematical computation by the FAA, and it creates an average decibel level that a home may be exposed to in a one-year span, with an additional 10 percent factored in for nighttime noise.
The measurement is not done through acoustical on-site testing however, but rather through specifications from a variety of planes and other noise-making vehicles that arrive or depart from Barnes. The FAA has an equation for each vehicle and they apply the results from those to the DNL.
Currently, homes that are in the 70 to 75 DNL range are being acquired, but homes in the 65 to 70 DNL range are expected to be acquired in the future.
Fortunately, for opponents of the program the F-35A fighter jets are not expected to come to Barnes in 2022 after the airport was not announced as finalists for the jets. This would mean major changes are unlikely to made to the NEP and thus the program, but Barnes is eligible to be a finalist for the F-35A jets for the year 2025 program.
