According to the president of the Yellow Cedar residential community, the Port Authority has failed by half to keep its pledge to relocate some 40 families temporarily, at its own expense, while work proceeds on the runway extension project at the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport.
Work on the project resumed last Wednesday after a three-month interruption because of concerns about the impact of the construction on the health of nearby residents, especially those of Yellow Cedar.
Louisa Williams, Yellow Cedar Homeowners Association president, appearing on the WTJX-TV program "Behind the Scenes" Sunday night, said residents of at least 20 homes have not been relocated.
The project, to extend the runway to 10,000 feet from the present 7,600, resumed more than three months after it was halted. On March 28, the Port Authority board voted to stop the project after Yellow Cedar residents complained that dust stirred up by construction was causing health problems.
The runway project "has wreaked havoc on our community," Williams said. She said government officials "assured me back in 1999 that mitigation measures would prevent such a catastrophe."
Another guest on the program, Port Authority spokesman Ken Hobson, said he couldn’t comment on Williams’ charges. Hobson repeated earlier statements by Port Authority officials to the effect that if the project is delayed further, federal discretionary funding "will be gone."
As part of the project, the Port Authority is to purchase 31 parcels of land adjacent to the airport, 25 of them with dwellings that house 65 families. The first phase of this effort, to obtain two appraisals for each property, has been completed, Port Authority officials said, and they are now in the process of negotiating with the property owners with the objective of relocating them permanently.
Meanwhile, Williams said, Yellow Cedar residents' requests to have Health Department officials advise them on possible health risks have gone unanswered.
The $18 million project is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2002. The current, and first, phase is expected to be finished in November.
