Letter: Efforts at airport meeting hailed

Lincoln Journal
November 27, 2002

An extraordinary evening took place on Tuesday, the Nov. 19. For the second time, close to 800 people turned out to hear the communities' responses to Massport's draft environmental review for Hanscom (ESPR). People came from Lexington, Lincoln, Concord and Bedford, but also from Waltham, Acton, Carlisle, Burlington and Billerica.

The meeting started at 7 p.m. and there were some 100 people still there at 11:30 p.m., including Massport Director Craig Coy. The 4 1/2 hours were filled with superb expert testimony from the HATS environmental subcommittee and Lisa Baci of Lexington, the consultant who led the towns' official response to Massport's report. Rep. Jay Kaufman, D-Lexington, Sen. Susan Fargo, D-Lincoln, and Tom Stanley all spoke for the legislative delegation, Nancy Nelson, director of Minute Man National Park presented a compelling condemnation of the report, Mark Gallagher from Rep. Ed Markey's office presented the support of our congressional delegation. In addition, numerous citizens spoke eloquently of the need for protection from Hanscom expansion.

What comes next? The Department of Environmental Affairs office, MEPA, will issue a finding on the Massport draft ESPR on or before Dec. 16. They can accept the report, require specific changes/additions, or send it back to the drawing board. The shorthanded MEPA office deserves credit for coming to the communities on two different evenings and staying here very late at night to enable all who wished to speak the opportunity to do so. We hope they will respond to the massive amount of testimony from experts and require Massport to make substantial changes to the ESPR.

Jim Hutchinson
Lincoln

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Lincoln Journal
November 27, 2002

Letter: Video of stars not in MEPA article

Last Tuesday's MEPA meeting at Bedford High School was nothing short of amazing. Once again hundreds and hundreds of people came out to say no to Hanscom expansion.

Our voices are not alone.

In a short video produced by Save Our Heritage many distinguished and prominent American citizens joined our dissent: historian David McCullough, recording artist Don Henley, naturalist E.O. Wilson, filmmaker Ken Burns, actor Christopher Reeve, environmentalist Ed Begley, and actor Paul Newman to name just a few. This is not a local issue. Save Our Heritage and their advisory board are bringing the destruction of our American treasures, such as Walden Pond, The Old North Bridge, Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge and Minute Man National Historical Park, to the attention of the American public.

It was incredible that this video was not mentioned in our town paper.

Mary Derbyshire
Brooks Road

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