CB 11 Talks Airplane Noise, Proposed School at Keil Bros. Site

Community Board 11 discussed the ongoing initiative to battle airplane noise over northeast Queens and the upcoming construction of a new Bayside school during its last meeting of the year on Monday night.

State Assemblyman Edward Braunstein, D-Bayside, dropped by the meeting at Bayside’s M.S. 158 to talk about recent efforts to get the Port Authority to conduct noise studies of regional airports.

For more than a year, northeast Queens residents have been complaining about constant airplane noise over their communities resulting from a new flight pattern out of LaGuardia Airport.

“We had a small victory with the bill we passed in the legislature that would require Gov. [Andrew] Cuomo to do an airplane study of the five boroughs,” Braunstein said. “He vetoed the bill, but in his veto he said he did not want to wait for New Jersey to do the noise compatibility studies for New York airports. We have his promise that he’s going to make the Port Authority do the noise studies. This is a very important issue for northeast Queens and Nassau County.”

CB 11 members and local residents also said they were outraged that the City Council recently approved a plan to build a 416-seat school at the Keil Bros. site in Bayside.

“The community board was completely disrespected in the passing of this site at Keil Bros. to build a school and completely change the quality of life in this neighborhood forever,” resident Toby Pagano said.

In May, Community Board 11 voted 25-3 against the proposal, which was followed by a terse written exchange between the board’s chairman, Jerry Iannece, and city Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott.

Iannece had said that the city has not kept the board notified about hearings on the matter.

“I’m very upset,” Iannece said during last night’s meeting. “They made this decision without us. Without question, our schools are overcrowded. But they totally disregarded our opinion. This is not the way the city of New York is supposed to work.”

And, during the meeting, outspoken board member Frank Skala announced that this year could likely be his last on CB 11.

“I’ve never missed a meeting and I speak several times at each meeting,” he said. “But I’m getting older and weaker. So, I think it might be time to retire at the end of this year. I thank you for the privilege of having served here 10 years.”