Massport's timing, motive questioned
Board critics say summer moves limit opposition

By Kerry Drohan, Globe Staff, 7/1/2001

BEDFORD - Coming on the first day of summer, Massport's approval for
Boston-Maine Airways to operate at Hanscom Field set the tone for what
promises to be the hottest season yet in the fight over commercial air
service.

The June 21 decision allowing the PanAm affiliate to fly seven round-trips
daily to the Cape and Islands joins a list of controversial issues so long
that the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission has scheduled a rare July meeting
to deal with them. The most contentious issues are Massport's plan to clear
vegetation around the airport, and the ''scoping'' of a new environmental
impact report.

Add another issue: timing. Town officials in the four communities that ring
the airport - Bedford, Lincoln, Concord, and Lexington - are questioning
what they call a pattern of behavior by Massport to introduce tough issues
during the summer doldrums.

''Massport seems to do a lot of things in the dark of summer,'' said Peter
Enrich, a Lexington selectman and HFAC representative. ''The towns run on
volunteers, and it's difficult to put together a committee of volunteers
over the summer, when people take their vacations. To ask us to engage in a
substantial process with very sharp legal time limits is simply to say they
don't want a public process.''

Enrich said part of the problem is Massport's slow response to requests for
information, noting that, ''The inability for us to get good information
from Massport is so consistent that you take it for granted.''

Hanscom's only commercial carrier, Shuttle America, was approved by Massport
on July 15, 1999, despite objections from the towns, which argued that they
did not have enough input at public hearings and did not receive information
from Massport that they had repeatedly requested.

''Do you sense a pattern here?'' asked Enrich. ''I'm inclined to recite a
series of instances, but the point is, this leads to a low level of trust.''

Massport denies any pattern and says it has its own scheduling problems to
deal with.

''Some people in the towns have told us we shouldn't bring important issues
to them in the summertime, or during the holidays, which is November and
December, and we shouldn't bring issues to them during the town meeting
process, which is most of the spring,'' said Richard Walsh, a Massport
spokesman. ''That leaves us very little time to discuss issues with the
communities, if that's the rules they want to play by. We need to have the
ability to discuss issues with the towns, and that can't be limited to only
a few months.''

But Sara Mattes, a Lincoln selectwoman and the HFAC chairwoman, said
Massport's timing puts a lot of pressure on volunteer town boards.

''I have seen important issues surface just at a time when it is most
difficult for us to get a quorum,'' she said. ''Lincoln, like the other
towns, is a volunteer-driven community. We do not have the budget to hire
consultants, so it requires a lot of people to step up when they are trying
to schedule vacations. This is extremely problematic.

''As these timing questions pervade, it leads to more than distrust, it
leads to cynicism and disrespect on the part of all parties,'' she said.
''You can lapse into name-calling and hissing matches.''

Within two weeks, Massport plans to submit its environmental impact
''scope'' to the state Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, which has
45 days to hold public hearings. The scope outlines what will be studied in
the Environmental Status and Planning Report (ESPR), which will be critical
in determining future commercial flights at Hanscom.

''We have been pushing this point all year, and we told them that if you
schedule the public process on the scoping of ESPR over the summer, that
will be seen by the communities as a betrayal,'' Enrich said. He called the
July 17 HFAC meeting ''a desperation attempt not to be brushed aside.''

Walsh said Massport was working with a deadline to produce a draft
environmental status report this year.

''We will prepare a full report in draft form and submit it, then start an
aggressive schedule of meeting with the communities for public input,'' he
said.

Meanwhile, Massport has not responded to an HFAC request that the agency
delay filing its notice of intent to clear vegetation at the end of runways.
The land is owned by Massport but is within 100 feet of wetlands owned by
the towns, which requires public hearings by all four conservation
committees. Massport plans to file the notice in late July.

''It would be constructive to delay the submission to August, minimally,''
Mattes said. ''After Massport files its notice, the town has 21 days to
convene public hearings, and we have to respond to EOEA within 40 days as a
town. That is difficult when one key thing has not been available - the
actual plan from Massport. How can we respond if we don't have the plan?''

Walsh said Massport just last week had received from the FAA a draft of the
Vegetation Management Plan, which will be reviewed internally and then
submitted to HFAC ''as soon as possible.'' He said he expects the
conservation commission hearings to continue into September, and there would
be ample time for public comment.

Bedford Selectman Sheldon Moll, who is due to begin his one-year term as
HFAC chair at the July meeting, also questioned Massport's timing on the
vegetation issue.

''This is the first instance that I would question their tactics,'' he said.
''It seems to me they could have gotten this process started earlier. They
will tell you they have to run their contracts in order to do the work this
winter, but why did they have to wait so late? Now it seems they're in a
rush to get them done. That does appear to be a little bit pushy.''


© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
This story ran on page 1 of the Boston Globe's NorthWest Weekly section on
7/1/2001.
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