The Lowell Sun
Friday, November 8, 2002

Huge turnout forces postponement of Hanscom hearing

By MATT O’BRIEN, Sun Correspondent

BEDFORD — Hundreds of cheering residents flooded out of Town Hall last night after a huge public turnout forced postponement of a crucial hearing on the future of Hanscom Field.

Nearly 500 people showed up at Town Hall, and activists say several hundred more were turned away from the building. The auditorium holds 200 people, and fire officials threatened to end the meeting if the crowd didn’t thin out.

The hearing, held by the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) office, was supposed to be an opportunity for the public to comment on the impacts of the expected commercial expansion of the airport, which is managed by the Massachusetts Port Authority.

But many residents of Bedford, Concord, Lexington and Lincoln, and the local preservation group Save Our Heritage, say the Massport environmental report expected to be presented at the hearing is little more than a blueprint for future commercial expansion that will harm nearby homes and historic sites.

Massport representatives never had a chance to present their environmental study, the first in five years.

As state officials asked half of the crowd to clear the hall so that they could go on with the meeting, residents chanted “Reschedule! Reschedule!”

“If people don’t keep their tempers down this meeting will be closed,” MEPA director Jay Wickersham warned.

The crowd wouldn’t budge.

“I think it’s essential that all the people who came out tonight hear Massport and have the opportunity to have their voices heard,” said Save Our Heritage director Anna Winter, who was clad in a colonial dress.

After officials, municipal representatives, and residents argued about what to do next, Wickersham announced that he would postpone the hearing to Nov. 19 at a larger site, and extended Massport’s public comment period to Nov. 26. The crowd erupted in cheers.

“The purpose of the Environmental Status and Planning Report is not an expansion,” Massport spokesman Richard Walsh said after the meeting. “It doesn’t tell you what would happen or what should happen. It tells you what could happen. It’s not a master plan.”

But Save Our Heritage president Neil Rasmussen said Massport’s study makes “bogus” conclusions that obscure the potential damage of continued airport expansion.

Rasmussen said the report shows that noise from planes now bothering residents of the sparsely populated Concord neighborhood near Monsen Road, just west of the field, will migrate over Concord center if the airport continues to expand.

Concord center has many homes, and is the site of the Emerson Home and the Concord Battleground. Walden Pond rests to the south, across Route 2.

“The reason I’m fighting this is the historic value of the area,”

Bedford resident Andrew Clerkin said. “I can move, but we can’t move the park. We have to stay and protect this place.”

“(Massport) wants a permit to do whatever they want, and that’s not reasonable,” Rasmussen said. “If they keep following this path, in 20 to 30 years nobody will want to go to these places anymore.”

Activists hope that MEPA will agree that Massport’s interpretation of acceptable noise level, traffic, and air pollution thresholds are flawed.

“They’re supposed to be on our side,” Rasmussen said. “We think we have compelling arguments on why they should not accept the plan as submitted.”

Activists are also banking on support from Gov.-elect Mitt Romney, who made a policy shift just days before the election when he announced he was opposed to expanding commercial use of the airfield.

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