Lebanon Neighbors Not Ready to Drop Opposition to Logging

Lebanon Airport neighbors filled the city councils chambers on Wednesday night to urge officials to reconsider a tree- removal project on more than 30 acres of city-owned land along Poverty Lane.

We are here to ask you to return this project to the discussion board, and to systematically assess the credibility of the threats which led to your previous decision, Harrison Wood read from a letter signed by himself and 35 others during the public comment portion of the councils meeting.

The letter questions whether the council fully considered the projects impact on the environment and the character of the neighborhood. Residents have expressed particular concerns about the effects on wildlife, noise from the airport and Interstate 89, and light from the beacons.

The letter also asks whether the Federal Aviation Administration has been transparent in its reasons for requiring the tree removal. City officials have said Lebanon would risk losing all federal grant funding and insurance coverage for the airport if it failed to complete the tree-removal project.

Lets set a different precedent: not of small government strongarmed into obedience by a federal bullys unsubstantiated threats, but rather of a level-headed community tempering fiscal anxiety with measured sense, and deciding how much of a costly federal regulation it feels obliged to heed, Wood said, reading from the letter.

Wood is the son of City Councilor Steve Wood, the owner of Poverty Lane Orchards, which abuts the airport. In the past, Councilor Wood has said he opposes the project and is unconvinced about the need for it.

Officials have said that it may be too late to reopen the issue.

We do not plan to postpone, City Manager Greg Lewis wrote in a Dec. 3 letter to Poverty Lane resident Charles Henry. We do not see a different outcome being achievable.

Opposition to the airport obstruction-removal project, which includes clearing 33 acres of trees, moving a fence and replacing 38 red warning lights on telephone poles with two flashing hazard beacons on 100-foot poles nearby, is not new.

The tree-clearing, which is intended to improve visibility for pilots along the southern portion of the east-west runway bordering Poverty Lane, first came to the council in 2010. At the time, the council opted not to fund it.

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Lebanon Neighbors Not Ready to Drop Opposition to Logging