nothin Pols Rally To Save Tweed | New Haven Independent

Pols Rally To Save Tweed

These are our neighbors,” said Mayor John DeStefano, pointing at a group of Tweed airport workers. They show up for work every day. We should expect no less from our elected representatives in Washington.”

Mayor DeStefano (at right in photo) made that point during a Friday afternoon press conference at New Haven’s Tweed airport. He joined U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy and Dick Blumenthal and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro in urging Congress to act to stop the dreaded budget cuts known as the sequester.”

The sequester, the result of a deal struck between Democrats and Republicans last summer, are set to go into effect on Saturday.

Tweed airport could be one victim of the sequester. It’s on a list of 200 airports, 100 of which would lose their Federal Aviation Agency air traffic controllers under the planned cuts. That leaves Tweed’s future up in the air. There’s a chance the airport could still function without its control tower, if US Airways chooses to continue flying there.

Blumenthal, Murphy, and DeLauro all warned that the closure of Tweed would have economic ripple effects throughout the area. Tweed is an economic powerhouse for New Haven,” Murphy said.

Blumenthal called on Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner to act on the economy. You break it, you own it.”

Blumenthal (pictured) warned the sequester would have catastrophic” and devastating” effects. He said there won’t be an immediate earthquake” of economic calamity; the results of the sequester will be cascading.”

The sequester could result in a loss of a full or half a percentage point of Gross Domestic Product, U.S. Sen. Murphy (pictured) predicted. He said the government should make smart cuts” instead of the dumb cuts” offered by the sequester.

That was the intent of this whole Rube Goldberg scheme to begin with,” Murphy said.

The great enemy here is uncertainty and confusion,” said Blumenthal. Doubt and fear driven by the sequester will inhibit economic growth” and could lead the country back into recession, he said.

Asked why she’s not in Washington working on a deal, U.S. Rep. DeLauro (pictured) said she would love to be, but Boehner adjourned Congress over the objection of House members.

Tweed Executive Director Tim Larson said five companies operate out of Tweed. The airport has a flight school and one commercial airline, US Airways. All told, over 100 people work at the airport.

Larson said about 20 of those work under him, doing things like fire suppression, maintenance, and technical support. If the sequester goes through, Tweed loses its air traffic controllers, and US Airways stops flying into Tweed, he would have to lay off about nine of those people, he said.

Larson said the sequester threat is causing a lot of stress at the airport. Everybody’s concerned. They’ve all got pits in their stomach.”

Tweed and US Airways staff looked on during the press conference.

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