New Haven Independent

Larson, the airport’s executive director, offered a lengthy update on the airport Wednesday night to the alderman Finance Committee. Only one member of the public showed up.

After the omnibus presentation, ranging from flood control and tidal gates to plane loads and safety zones, Larson told a reporter that the bottom line was that Mayor John DeStefano Jr. wanted construction work on the airport completed as soon as possible and a marketing effort on the airport be stepped up.

(Click here for a recent story detailing challenges facing the airport project.)

“We will be looking for a few more [air] carriers” before starting any more phases of the airport reconstruction, including the movement of the terminal into East Haven. The thrust now is to add to the five daily commercial flights now taking off and landing at Tweed. They all go to Philadelphia, he said.

Larson said the plan is to make progress with as little disruption in the lives of area residents. To that end, he said, the airport authority has paid for power-washing of residents’ homes and offered chits good for car washes because of the construction. He also said he is holding meetings with residents and has asked the U.S. Coast Guard, which uses Tweed for late-night training exercises with helicopters, to give him notice of their intentions so he could warn residents “not to try to watch the (Red) Sox game that night.”

He categorized his relationship with area residents as good and getting better. He said the construction was making everyones life more complicated. For example, construction workers have to go through airport security to get to their bulldozers and other construction equipment.

He said the authority is trying everything it can, “looking under every rock” for more funding, including selling advertising on the baskets that the Transportation Security Administration inspectors hand out to passengers for keys and change.

He told the panel that the airport has winnowed its $750,000 deficit down to $235,000 this year and will know in January or February whether it can eliminate the deficit.

Asked by Castro what the consequences would be if the city were to have to take over the airport from the airport authority that operates it now, city transportation director Michael Piscitelli said “we desperately do not want the airport back as a city agency.” If the city had to take over running the airport, the $550,000 annual expense would balloon to $2.5 million, he said.

The board had to take no action on the report, only order it printed and made available to the public.

In another action, the board passed and sent on to the full Board of Aldermen a multiyear contract with Aegis Energy Services forcogeneration of electricity and heat at six public schools. Perez abstained because, he said, he had only recently been given a copy of the contract and couldn’t digest what was in it, but didn’t want to go on record opposing the proposal. The other nine alders in attendance voted for it.