The Haines Borough is one step closer to deciding how its $41,300 helicopter noise study should be used, if at all.
At last week’s assembly meeting, assembly member Margaret Friedenauer moved to send the study to the borough planning commission with the direction that the group hold a public hearing on the question of whether the municipality should regulate the use of helicopters for the purpose of mitigating noise.
If the commission decides the borough should go that route, it should determine what levels are acceptable and under what conditions, Friedenauer said.
Friedenauer said she doesn’t have a position on whether helicopter noise should be regulated. “I just feel like it’s the assembly’s responsibility to at least look at the results in a concrete way,” she said. “I’m not sure we’re getting our money out of it, especially if we don’t do anything with it, including having a public hearing.”
The motion passed 5-1, with assembly member George Campbell opposed.
Campbell said he wouldn’t support the motion because the borough has other issues to worry about.
“I believe that getting into a big noise argument with a community of 2,500 people when we’ve got other things in place already… I don’t want to go there in this community,” Campbell said. “There are a lot of people that move here for the freedoms and every time we show up at a meeting and we’re chipping away at freedoms, it’s not a very friendly place to be.”
The planning commission will hold the public hearing at its Nov. 12 meeting.