Local Civic leader, Ray Keenan, a Board member of the Manor Park Civic Association has taken the Town to court on the clearing of the more than 100 acres and the controversial approval of  the 12,000 gallon above ground fuel tanks less than 50 feet from his own home and very close to MPCA  area homes.  MPCA has long supported the efforts of local residents and other civics to bring the town owned Airport into compliance and to compel the Town to develop an update its 1990  Master Plan.  Instead the Town continues to bow to every FAA request just to keep the $$ flowing into town coffers. The massive clearing of neighborhood buffer zones is not supported by area residnets and the long promised revegatation seems to have been carted off the the dump with the rest of the debris.  Ray filed an Article 78 to stop the clearing along with other activities being planned. carried out, proposed or now going on at the Airport; such activites pose a continued threat to degrade area residents quality of life. 

Judge issues Temporary Restraining Order

Stops Work 

It’s on hold, at least for now.

A state Supreme Court judge issued a temporary stop-work order Friday, preventing Brookhaven Town from clearing additional trees and Northeast Airpark LLC from installing an aviation fuel tank at Calabro Airport in Shirley. Shirley attorney Raymond Keenan, who filed a related article 78 lawsuit last year, said he is challenging the town on the basis its officials did not comply with the proper environmental reviews or inform the airport advisory committee.

“It’s two separate items but they are both part of the airport’s master plan,” he said. “My argument is that under the environmental rules they should have been considered together, which the town did not do and, also the town’s tree removal project should have been considered in three sections.”

“It is our position that the town has complied with all federal and state rules and regulations including SEQRA and all town code provisions regarding the Calabro Airport obstruction removal projects and the fuel tank installation permit process,” Brookhaven Town Spokesman Jack Krieger said Tuesday. Sayville attorney Eric Russo, who represented Northeast’s permit application before Brookhaven, said he could not comment because he had not seen the legal papers served on the town.

Brookhaven officials removed two banks of trees at the airport about two years ago as part of a series of safety improvements funded by the Federal Aviation Administration. Since then Keenan said residents in the surrounding community have been subject to noise pollution and storm damage as a result of the removal of the buffer zone. To take another bank of trees away from the buffer zone would just be too much, Keenan said. “It’s gone from bucolic to barren land,” he said. “No one has really explained why they need to take the last bank of trees.”

 Keenan said the town also failed to consider the safety repercussions when its officials approved a fire prevention permit to Northeast for the construction of the 12,000-gallon airplane fuel tank at the airport. Previous applications made by the same company were denied because the original proposed amount of 15,000 gallons was above the 2,000 gallons allowed by the Department of Fire Prevention and did not comply with a standard for aircraft fuel servicing adopted by the town, Keenan said. During an appeal of the denials, the town fire marshal granted the approval, but limited the tank to 12,000 gallons, Keenan said.

The town should have considered the potential environmental impacts of the proposed fuel tank construction, Keenan said. “There is always the possible outcome of a tragic accident happening,” he said. “We have some concerns about that. How would you fight that fire?”

Mastic Park Civic Association President John Scignano aired similar concerns. Expressing concern about the changes at the airport, Scignano said it would be less so had members of the community been properly advised at committee meetings. Given recent history Scignano said officials should probably rethink the addition of another fuel tank in the Mastic-Shirley area.

A gas leak behind Kohl’s department store resulted in the evacuation of some 900 homes and businesses and required the activation of 80 fire and ambulance companies — the largest response since the Sunrise Wildfires in 1995. Investigators later attributed the propane gas leak to the human error of a service man from Synergy Gas, the company that services the department store, and not in any way related to Bay Gas itself. “We had a scare at the beginning of the year,” he said. “Right down the road from [Calabro] is over 100,000 gallons of propane and now you want to put 15,000 gallons for that company at the airport?”

 A public hearing on the CRSG reccommendations is now scheduled for March 29th at 5PM at Town Hall in Farmingville.  The Transfer of Development Riights from residental to multi-family zoning could have significant impact on our area as we are surrounded by many acres now zoned L-1, Industrial. 

The plan would permit developers to transfer credits from the 1 to 5 year groundwater contribution  area to properties in all areas of the town presently  zoned commercial or industrial...that's us!  The planb would permit anywhere from 3.5 to 12 units per acre; more than 3.2 units per acre is a well established tax negative to local school district revenue and costs.

You can view the February 15th Town Board Meeting and Carmans River Comments @ this link 

12/8/2010 - Brookhaven & Bishop Ignore Continued Community Demands for A true Updated  AIRPORT MASTER PLAN and Secure federal funding for the community rejected FAA Airport Layout Plan!

BISHOP, LESKO ANNOUNCE $142,500 TO UPDATE CALABRO AIRPORT PLAN