Serial complainers
It is becoming increasingly apparent that a small but determined number of people from the towns of Middleton and Springfield are engaging in a systematic and targeted campaign against the Middleton airport, a campaign described by visibly frustrated airport manager Rich Morey at the September 3 Airport Commission meeting as "bordering on harassment".
According to data he presented, the number of flights in and out of Middleton Municipal Airport - Morey Field in August is sharply down (again) compared to the same month last year, while noise and overflight complaints are sharply up (again).
In August 2019, the airport received 7 noise complaints. In August 2020, with air traffic down by more than 20%, a total of 40 complaints were made because of noise or low-flying aircraft - an increase of more than 570%.
Three individuals, all town of Middleton residents, made up almost 75% of all complaints (29 out of 40). One of the serial-complainers is Cynthia Richson, the chairwoman of the town of Middleton Town Board, who lives on Airport Road, across from Sunset Ridge Elementary School. The other two are Jennifer Pavlovic, who lives off Airport Road near the city limits, and Deb Nelson, a neighbor of Cynthia Richson's. While Cynthia Richson and Jennifer Pavlovic are veterans at this type of "harassment", Deb Nelson seems to be a new recruit, according to Rich Morey.
It is a pattern that has been repeating itself over the past several months. The number of flights by Morey Airplane Company and others was also down 20% in July 2020 compared to July 2019, but complaints were up 200%, from 11 in July 2019 to 33 in July 2020. Of these 33 complaints, 20 (60%) were made by the two complaints-veterans, Cynthia Richson and Jennifer Pavlovic.
In May, the discrepancy between flights and complaints was even more striking: While the number of flights in May 2020 was down 55% compared to May 2019, the number of complaints was up 1,000%, from 4 in 2019 to 44 in 2020. Again, the majority of complaints was made by the same two people, who over the course of the last year have consistently been responsible for over half of all complaints.
To say that Cynthia Richson is obsessed with the airport is probably a bit of an understatement. While many people who live near the airport are opposed to a (theoretically possible) expansion of the main runway (and have made their opposition quite clear at many airport-related City meetings), she seems to be considering them as merely useful idiots in her own quest, which looks like aiming quite a bit further, namely to get rid of the airport altogether.
And talking about useful idiots: She has managed to convince both her own Town Board as well as the Springfield Town Board to blackmail the City of Middleton into essentially giving them veto-power over any decisions concerning the airport by connecting her demands to seemingly unrelated inter-governmental issues: access to a Middleton town road that could block the Erdman Park project near Pleasant View Golf Course, and help with storm water management infrastructure on town of Springfield land - among others.
As regular readers of this newsletter know, she has the support of Middleton mayor Gurdip Brar in her anti-airport activities, and she was his first choice to succeed herself on the Airport Commission when her term was up in the spring. She had originally been appointed to the Airport Commission by Gurdip Brar, but the City Council blocked her reappointment earlier this year. The seat is still vacant as the mayor sulks.
While she managed to enlist the support of many town (and some city) residents by presenting her crusade as being directed against any airport-expansion plans the City might have (which it doesn't yet), her complaints-activities indicate the true nature of her intentions. The fact that she and her acolytes file an exponentially increasing number of complaints against airport operations even as air traffic is down shows that the real target of their campaign is not a hypothetical expansion, but the airport itself as it is now.
In response to citizens' requests to simplify the complaints procedure, the City of Middleton, besides its 'noise abatement procedure' that pilots have to follow, installed a 'noise abatement hotline' (phone number) and an online-complaints option last year, but with limited success: According to the airport manager, only 10% of complaints were made using the official channels, while almost 90% were sent to his private email address, which seems to have been disseminated by anti-airport people in the know.
All complaints are followed up on (although by Federal law, the City has little to no enforcement power), and the pilots are contacted if possible. It turns out that virtually all complaints were about flight patterns where the pilots followed the correct procedure. In other words, people just complain about aircraft. These are people - let's be clear about this - who moved near an airport that has been in operation since 1942.
According to the airport manager's briefing, a "report of a 'near miss' between a helicopter and a Cirrus aircraft was investigated. From the flight tracker data, it was determined that there was at least 400 feet of vertical separation, which is sufficient clearance."
The report of that "near miss", which led to a lot of hyperventilating on social media, is apparently one of an increasing number of similar allegations due to amateur plane-spotters using inaccurate and unreliable aircraft-tracking apps, which leads to false alarms, unnecessary panic, and a poisoned atmosphere between public officialdom and a badly informed citizenry.
Rich Morey's sobering conclusion: "The politicizing of this reporting system undermines its utility."
Open for restrictions
Yesterday, September 8, the City of Middleton's License and Ordinance Committee (L&O) unanimously approved an ordinance that allows people to consume alcohol on the green space next to City Hall, similar to what's allowed on the downtown plaza. According to the text of the ordinance, which has still to be approved by the Common Council on September 15, the space is 'hereby opened for use as a park to function as a public commons to be referred to as City Hall Commons'. With that opening come restrictions: no pets, no glass, no amplified music, no bicycles, no smoking, and nothing and nobody at all between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m.
Freedom for mailboxes
At the same meeting, L&O also approved an ordinance that prohibits parking within 4 feet of an on-street mailbox. Enforcement will not be automatic, but complaint-based, and neither the City nor property owners will be required to put up signs alerting motorists to the prohibition (although property owners may do so if they want to). One would think that people have enough common sense and courtesy not to block a mailbox, but then again, if everybody had enough common sense and courtesy, we wouldn't need most regulations anyway. As my father likes to say, 'rules are needed because of the people who break them'.
Survey questions
On Tuesday, September 15, the Common Council will, again, discuss a loan program for local businesses struggling with the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic when City Administrator Mike Davis will present 'a proposal in collaboration with MADC' (Middleton Area Development Corporation).
At its September 1 meeting, the Council was presented the (partial) results of a survey conducted by the Middleton Chamber of Commerce among its members about their needs for support during the pandemic. Of 64 participants, just under 66% (42) replied that a zero- or low-interest loan from the City could benefit their business. Just over 20% of those who said they could use a loan would like the amount to be $10,000 or less, while almost 42% would like a loan over $25,000 (see chart). It is likely that the City's loan program will be towards the lower end, while larger loans could be made by MADC, which had previously claimed, with some justification, that it was not equipped to administer a large number of small loans.
The survey results were viewed with some suspicion by Council members because the Chamber's membership extends far beyond the city of Middleton, and thus not only includes small locally owned businesses, but also large corporations and service providers that have not been negatively impacted by the pandemic. Since the survey was anonymous, it is not known who responded.
The survey results are indeed significantly different from an admittedly unscientific poll conducted by the Middleton Review among some of its advertisers, exclusively local bars, restaurants and retailers, and which showed unanimity against a loan program: No business owner wanted to take on more debt, although they were, unsurprisingly, not against grants. Most importantly, though, they all clearly stated that they need more customers. Anything the City could do to increase foot traffic to their stores, bars, restaurants and hair salons would be welcome.
CDA brainstorming (part 2)
And talking about City support for local businesses: Tomorrow, Thursday, September 10, the City’s Community Development Authority (CDA) will hold a meeting during which it will listen to suggestions by local business owners on what the City can do to support its business community. The meeting will be held virtually via Zoom, and is scheduled to take place at 5:30 p.m. People who don’t have access to a computer, can call in using a smart phone. Information on how to participate in the meeting can be found on the City of Middleton website