Boston Globe NorthWest
Sunday, October 26, 2003

Towns continue FedEx boycott
Company remains undecided about Hanscom service

By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent

As Lexington and Lincoln continued their boycott of Federal Express Corp., the company reported last week it was no closer to a decision on serving Bedford's Hanscom Field than it was two months ago.

And there is no decision-making timetable, said Sandra Munoz, a spokeswoman for the Memphis-based carrier. Munoz said that the company was continuing to evaluate using the airfield and other venues in the Boston area for cargo flights.

Meanwhile, officials in Lexington and Lincoln said the town governments are boycotting FedEx services. And a citizens petition coming before Bedford's Town Meeting tomorrow night calls on selectmen to consider using other overnight package carriers.

Concord selectmen have not taken a vote on the boycotting issue and probably won't, Chairman Rich Edes said in an Oct. 22 phone interview.

"The board is focusing its attention on Hanscom Air Force Base. That's a high priority for us," he said.

State and local officials have begun lobbying to keep the Air Force base open in the face of expected 2005 base closings.

Munoz said of the boycott by the two local governments: "We'd hope they'd stay with the proven leader in our industry."

Following in the footsteps of Lexington, which began using other carriers this past summer, Lincoln decided a month ago to boycott FedEx services, said Sara Mattes, a selectwoman and chairwoman of the Hanscom Area Towns Committee, which is comprised of officials from Bedford, Concord, Lexington, and Lincoln, the towns surrounding Hanscom.

"But we also recognized that [FedEx] had decided to put off its [Hanscom Field] decision" in part because of concerns raised by the four communities about noise and traffic, Mattes said.

FedEx, which did fly into Hanscom Field briefly, between 1973 and 1978, had said earlier this year that it was contemplating 10 cargo flights a week in and out of the airport.

In other Hanscom Field-related developments, the Massachusetts Port Authority, the airfield's owner-operator, will begin cutting back trees and underbrush adjoining the runways as soon as the ground is frozen, spokesman Richard Walsh said at a meeting of the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission last Tuesday night. The commission is a group of local officials and residents from the towns around Hanscom that provides input to Massport on Hanscom matters.

Walsh also said that Massport will be deicing runways this winter for the first time. Peter Enrich, chairman of the commission, noted that "there will be a reasonable testing regimen" for the chemicals used. "We'll be watching what's in the runoffs," he said.

© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
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