Medevac application deemed incomplete

1/6/2005

BEDMINSTER -- The plan to convert a Somerset Airport hangar into the New Jersey State Police medevac offices was grounded Thursday when the Planning Board voted that the application was incomplete.

The Planning Board asked Somerset Air Services to return to the board with an updated and Federal Aviation Administration-approved airport master plan. That would accompany the Somerset Air Service's application to convert what is now a hangar into a facility with two restrooms, closet space, a kitchenette, four offices and an open meeting area. The proposal also includes a septic system for the building.

It was the beginning of a dogfight that has erupted between factions for and against the permanent relocation of the New Jersey State Police medevac helicopter operation. Six objecting attorneys hired by landowners near the airport and citizens' groups sat in the front rows of Municipal Building meeting room. Attorney Edward Halpern, who was representing Bridgewater, was also present.

Bedminster Bridgewater Branchburg Concerned Citizens Coalition President Alan Harwick, who also served as the group's attorney, cited a township ordinance that said an updated FAA-approved airport master plan must accompany the application before it can be deemed complete.

The most recent plan in the application was from 1997. The two hangars and taxiways that have since been altered and an added beacon light were not reflected in the board's copies of the plan, Planning Board Chairman Paul Henderson said.

Somerset Airport attorney William Mennen contended that Harwick's objections were to obfuscate the application and "boggle it down with techy-engineer speak." Mennen said the airport will provide the board with the updated documents.

The meeting began with Harwick asking the newly appointed Planning Board members -- Jason Andris, Kimberly Hatch and Marie Callahan -- whether they can serve objectively after hearing Mayor Bob Holtaway's remarks about Harwick and his opposition group.

Holtaway compared the Bedminster Branchburg Bridgewater Concerned Citizens Coalition to terrorists Tuesday evening at the Township Committee's reorganization meeting. The opposition group had sent a flier to residents, asking them to come to the meeting to stop Holtaway from becoming mayor because of his airport interests, including owning a commercial glider business there.

Township officials rescheduled the formal reorganization meeting an hour earlier and moved it to the Municipal Building due to threats of disruption. Both the Municipal Building and Willie's Taverne, where Holtaway's remarks and the post reorganization dinner buffet were held, were searched by the Somerset County Sheriff's Office bomb team, including a bomb-sniffing dog.

Harwick called for Holtaway to step down. Holtaway said he won't.

The issue has been a hot topic for more than a year now.

The state police medevac helicopter unit moved from Newark to the 200-acre Somerset Airport in February, Somerset Air Services owner Dan Walker said before the meeting. The relocation plans have been in the works for a couple of years, he said. Even the scaled-down plans have drawn public outcry.

"They have the right to get their concerns heard and considered. We've never refused to do that," Walker said."It's been our philosophy to be as good neighbors as we can."

But some neighbors think otherwise -- and have joined the Bedminster Branchburg Bridgewater Concerned Citizens Coalition to block the airport expansion, which sits near the corner of the three communities.

Deborah Smith, who lives on Amsterdam Road in Bridgewater, said she's used to the airplanes. However, when a helicopter passes over her home she said the window panes rattle and the walls shake.

"If I could be reassured that every time I hear a helicopter taking off and landing, that a life is being saved, I would be all for the expansion. However, no one has been able to prove either way that that's happening."

By Kara L. Richardson
Staff Writer