Local officials claim Navy jet flyovers in Camden and Currituck counties are increasing, and Currituck Commissioner Gene Gregory thinks he knows why:
The Navy is testing residents of the two counties’ tolerance for jet noise, he says, so that it will be easier later on to choose the Hales Lake area of Camden for its proposed outlying landing field.
Commissioner Gene Gregory
“We’re already under attack and (the Navy) is trying us to see what the rebuttal will be,” Gregory said Monday. “They could say, ‘We’ve been flying over there six months and we haven’t had any complaints, so what’s the big deal now?’ And that’s what they’re going to say if you don’t have any complaints” about the flyovers.
Gregory also believes the Navy is hoping the increased flyovers will flush waterfowl and other birds out of the Hales Lake area, so that when the results of its winter bird study come back, they’ll show fewer birds in the area than there otherwise might be.
Hales Lake Area
“Some (residents) seem to think they’re conducting all these flights to run those birds out of there,” Gregory said. “So the bird test will show up less than it really would be.”
Gregory made the remarks during a joint meeting of Currituck and Camden officials in Barco on Monday. The officials were meeting to discuss the latest developments in the counties’ ongoing fight to block the Navy from choosing Hales Lake for its proposed landing field.
OLF
Also on hand for the meeting were representatives of the Poyner Spruill law firm in Raleigh and the French/West/Vaughan marketing firm, both of whom are employed by the counties to fight the OLF.
The subject of the flyovers was much on the mind of officials attending the meeting.
Randell Edwards, a public information officer for Currituck, said officials in both counties are urging residents with complaints about jet noise to visit Camden’s and Currituck’s Web sites and fill out the noise complaint form. Traffic on the Web site has increased in recent months, he said, to between 1,700 and 2,000 Web hits a day.
“It’s increased in traffic just in the last few months for some reason,” Edwards said. “I don’t know if the flights have increased or what. It’s gotten more attention.”
Gregory said Currituck officials have made a point of asking residents to post their comments about the jet noise online.
“Randall (Edwards) has made a point to put the OLF right up on top of every issue in asking people to make complaints,” he said. “That’s something that needs to be continued right on up until we settle this thing.”
Gregory said his fear is that if there aren’t enough complaints on the site, the Navy may use that to show that there’s not enough opposition to the OLF to stop it at Hales Lake.
Ted Brown, a spokesman for the U.S. Fleet Forces Command, referred a reporter to Navy officials on the question of whether flyovers in Camden and Currituck are increasing.
Navy officials announced last week that they plan to conduct additional winter bird studies in the Hales Lake area, primarily because the Camden site is the only one of the five being studied for the OLF that has a significant waterfowl population. Also, Navy officials had already decided to put off release of their environmental studies until next year, so the extra winter of bird data would be more accurate.
During Monday’s meeting, Khaner Walker, a representative of French/West/Vaughan**, told local officials that his company has been able to raise the national profile of the OLF issue.
“We’ve been quite successful in the publicity outreach and also in doing so, being able to coordinate that with success on the elected officials front,” he said. “We’ve been able to get some very positive momentum from the Legislature and also from our statewide elected officials and even our congressional delegations.”
Walker sent around a list of press releases and ads, where they were sent, and their estimated worth.
“I think we’ve garnered something in the neighborhood of $13 million in publicity value, which is extremely high,” he said.
By Toby Tate
Staff Writer Daily Advance
Monday, November 23, 2009
**French | West | Vaughan (FWV) was created in 2001 through the merger of Richard French & Associates – the Southeast’s largest independent public relations firm – and West & Vaughan, one of the nation’s most highly acclaimed creative advertising boutiques.
