An acquaintance of mine lives Berkely St, about 1/2 west of BTV.  He wrote the following in an email and I requested his permission to post his writing here.  Even though he said it was OK to use his name, I’ll withhold his name at this time.

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It seems that there really are very strong parallels between the Valpariso and Burlington airports’ controversies. Those living farthest away from the airport are the strongest supporters.

I will be getting deeply involved in this and I want to let you know why. When the F16s take off I have to step away from the picture window our of fear of it smashing, all conversation is brought to a halt until all four jets have taken off, and the pictures on the wall tilt from the vibrations. I am 1/2 mile away at a right angle from the takeoff strip with lots of houses between us and the airport. So the opposition is not without merit. Under consideration are a dozen other sites without the potential for such controversy. I also do not like H-bombs being based here; they make us a target. Better they be base in more remote from populated areas.

Supporters of the F-35 basing: Many of the 10,000 names on the petition mentioned below were fraudulent – from an examination of them for validity. the petiton didn’t pass the smell test.

I just joined the opposition after having donated a considerable sum to the cause a few weeks ago.

I will be working on a documentary and new article covering interviews by those currently affected by the F16 noise. I disliked the cavalier attitude of the business community at a debate a few weeks ago at St Mikes. I also disliked Senator Leahy sneaking out the back door when 100 of us demonstrated outside his office in Burlington last week in an appeal to meet with him to present our case. For two years none of our federal delegation, who support the basing here, has agreed to meet and listen to our concerns.