"Louisville airport receives $15 million for noise mitigation program"

Wednesday, February 9, 2005

100 families can flee airport noise 
By Chris Poynter
The Louisville (KY) Courier-Journal


One hundred more families can escape from noisy neighborhoods near the
Louisville International Airport because of a $15 million federal grant
announced yesterday.

The money, provided through the Federal Aviation Administration's noise
mitigation program, reduces to 60 the number of families still waiting to be
moved as part of the airport's buyout program.

Another 119 families are eligible to move through the voluntary program but
have told airport officials they aren't interested.

The additional funding was welcome news to Willie Woods and his girlfriend,
Amanda Board, who live with their six children in the Minor Lane Heights
neighborhood, where planes fly so low and are so loud that they drown out
conversations.

"We are definitely moving," Woods said yesterday, his 4-year-old stepson,
Dante Board, standing at his knees, grinning. "We need space."

Airport officials say they need another $35 million to complete the
voluntary buyouts, which includes the 119 who haven't said they will move.
Airport officials expect those homeowners eventually will choose to
participate as more people leave.

U.S. Rep. Anne Northup, R-3rd District, said she and airport officials would
work to find more money to ensure that everyone who wants to move can.
Northup, working with the FAA, secured more than $98 million in funding for
the $248 million relocation program, airport Executive Director Skip Miller
said.

"We are going to keep rowing this boat until we get every one of these
families moved," Northup said.

The airport's expansion, announced in 1988, forced the mandatory relocation
of 1,581 families in the Standiford, Prestonia, Tuberose and Highland Park
neighborhoods.

In 1991, as air traffic increased, the airport began voluntarily relocating
people in homes where the noise levels exceeded federal standards for
residential living.

So far, officials have spent $197 million to buy 1,861 homes and move their
owners to new sites in the voluntary program.

People who choose to relocate can find their own house or move into a new
home, built by the airport, in a new neighborhood known as Heritage Creek.

Anna Church, 29, who rents a house in Minor Lane Heights, said she's eager
to move into her own home. Renters who live in neighborhoods affected by
airplane noise get their moving expenses paid, along with other financial
help.

Church hopes to use that money to buy a home.

"I've been looking. I'm tired of forking out the money for rent when I could
buy," said Church, who lives with her two children, ages 2 and 7, and her
boyfriend.

But other residents aren't so eager to leave, including some who have
children nearing graduation, said Mary Rose Evans, an airport board member
and president of the Airport Neighbors Alliance. And, with the voluntary
program, they don't have to.


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