For four decades their predecessors had fought over airplanes and runways. A mediator assembled the two camps to seek a peace treaty. They remained stuck. Then the mayors of New Haven and East Haven decided to retire to another room, and find a way to make history.
That breakthrough took place last December at New Haven City Hall — and led to an agreement announced Monday afternoon about how to proceed with improving Tweed-New Haven Regional Airport.
The agreement comes as New Haven is pressing for a state bailout to keep the airport open.
It also ends 40 years of acrimony between New Haven’s politicians and business community, who saw an expanded airport as key to economic growth; and East Haven officials and neighbors, who saw the airport straddling the town line as an infringement on their quality of life.
Until now a peace treaty seemed unlikely. It felt that way in December when Community Mediation came to New Haven City Hall to conduct a session with officials from both towns seeking to resolve longstanding issues.
New Haven Mayor John DeStefano and East Haven Mayor April Capone Almon (pictured) saw the group session going nowhere. That’s why they decided to go off to a separate room.
In their private chat, DeStefano and Capone Almon discovered that they agreed more than disagreed. Neither side wanted East Haven to proceed with a costly, lengthy lawsuit to stop the feds from forcing traffic improvements. Capone Almon wanted the size of the airport’s main runway limited, not expanded another 1,000 feet; DeStefano had no problem with that. He’d rather have 30 departures a day than continue a fight that was holding up any improvements that would attract new airlines. They found they could agree on the number of planes that would fly every day.
Less than a half hour later, DeStefano and Capone Almon emerged from their private chat with the basics of an agreement. They and their staffs filled in the details over subsequent weeks. On Monday afternoon the final treaty was ready, and the two peacemaking mayors traveled to the state Capitol to sign it.
“We weren’t getting anywhere,” DeStefano recalled at Monday’s ceremonial signing about that turning point in December. “It was a moment of frustration and we went into my office alone to see what we can do about this.”
The final version of the agreement was arrived at only this weekend, he said.
The agreement includes a joint statement of support: “The city of New Haven and the Town of East Haven support the Tweed New Haven Airport Authority in its effort to provide high quality air service in a safe, responsible and environmentally sensitive manner.”
The agreement calls for:
• Building runway safety areas and and a taxiway project and settling litigation.
• Limiting the main runway length to the present 5,600 feet.
• Removing off-airport obstructions.
• Establishing an airport service ceiling at the airport including a limit of 30 departures a day, 180,000 emplanements a year, 700 parking spaces (now existing) and six commercial service counters.
•Supporting legislative inititiatives to provide $2 million in operating support, preserve a $5 million capital bond and increase the annual payment in lieu of taxes to 100 percent for the host municipalities.
East Haven also got a total of five members, up from the two members the town has now, on the 14-member airport authority board.
Both DeStafano and Capone Almon called the agreement a compromise. DeStefano said he didn’t get everything he wanted; Capone Almon said she had gotten most of what she sought.
New Haven Alderman Yusuf Shah, chairman of the Aldermanic Finance Committee that last week approved a $160,000 bailout of Tweed’s operating budget to be matched by the business community, traveled to the Capitol to join the ceremony. He said that although the city didn’t get all it wanted, it was important to put the fight behind it and move on with growing the airport.
“The collaboration between the two sovereignties is more important,” he said. Fair Haven Alderwoman Migdalia Castro, a committee member, praised the agreement, too
Hill Alderman Jorge Perez, the only committee member to vote against the city bailout, Monday said the agreement is “great news.” He did voice concern about the agreement not to extend the runways, which was called necessary by some people who had spoken to the committee before its vote last week.
Both State Sen. Leonard Fasano, whose district includes East Haven, and East Haven State Rep. Mike Lawlor called Tweed a good, small regional airport. Anthony Rescigno, president of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce, said the moment in time has come for Tweed to offer improved service and be a catalyst for more jobs in the region.
“This sets the stage to finish the infrastructure and to move on,” DeStefano said. “The goal for the airport is to set service to regional hubs such as Indianapolis, Chicago, Charlotte and Washington, D.C.” USAir now flies only to Philadelphia.
Airport authority Executive Director Tim Larson said he is thrilled that the decades of strife appear at an end and now he can work with both communities on making the airport better.
Both mayors Sunday night and Monday were clutching at symbolic four-leaf clovers for luck as each refused to comment on the deal because it might be jinxed by a comment or an offhand remark.
“There’s a lot of time between 10 o’clock Sunday night and 1 p.m. Monday,” Capone Almon said in a telephone interview Sunday night. “I’m running for re-election this year. It is important to me that I have a consensus on a topic this important , on an issue that has been going on for so many years,” she said.
This is great news! And once the towns see the regional economic benefit of a real working airport, 3-4 years from now, they'll vote to expand the runway further anyways. Pave the safety areas ASAP, Rell!