East Hampton Town to study possible airport safety threat from trees

East Hampton Town has hired two companies to determine if any obstructions, such as trees, could endanger aircraft approaching the main runway at the East Hampton Airport.

A taxiway repaving project was completed last week; and aging lights at the airport will be replaced by the end of the year, town board members said in a statement.

Town officials are contemplating maintaining the airport without the help of federal grants -- a prospect that has angered pilots and other interests tied to the aviation industry.

East Hampton officials, seeking to curb noise, will gain greater control over air traffic next year if they stop taking federal money, and say the airport makes enough in fees to fund its own maintenance.

"While the town examines solutions to our very serious noise problem, we must not forget our continuing obligation to operate a safe airport," Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez said in a news release.

Loren Riegelhaupt, a spokesman for the aviation industry group Friends of East Hampton Airport, said in a statement that recent projects "do not scratch the surface of the glaring safety issues at the airport."

East Hampton on Nov. 6 hired Quantum Spatial, a Wisconsin-based company, to take aerial photographs and measurements near the runway and Michael Baker International, a Pennsylvania engineering firm, to analyze the data for obstructions. The town board authorized $35,000 in spending for the work.

The town hired Baseline King Corp. of upstate Barneveld, New York, to replace lights along a taxiway for $192,415. The existing lighting is old and prone to shorting out, town board members said.

East Hampton officials also said they are considering replacing a perimeter fence that is designed to keep deer off the airport and installing an automated weather-data system, among other projects.