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Mailbag: Close JWA to commercial air traffic

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While I applaud the efforts of everyone at the Airport Working Group and Newport Beach Mayor Nancy Gardner in regards to the John Wayne Airport curfew, there is no comfort in your headline, “JWA curfew likely to survive,” March 8.

Those of us who have been around for awhile understand that there is little truth (French phrase meaning “none”) coming from anyone connected with JWA. Going into our third straight year of declining passenger numbers, we now have a sparkling new, multigazillion-dollar terminal where all these-non passengers can choose not to go.

I, for one, am not hoping for a pat on the head and keeping everything the same. Satisfaction for me comes when JWA is closed to commercial aircraft and turned into the parking area where you board the high-speed trains/shuttles to Ontario Airport. That should be the starting point of negotiations for all.

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It is completely insane to keep forcing an airport into an area surrounded by communities, and one of the largest wildlife preserves in the nation. A far better headline would be, “Private air traffic likely to survive once commercial service ends at JWA.”

Those who wish to ignore the incredible stupidity of expanding JWA and continue to defecate in our backyards should be relegated to only traveling as far as a big orange balloon can take them.

Treb Heining

Newport Beach

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Noise from private planes

Re “JWA curfew likely to survive,” March 8.

The article stated that there is a curfew for takeoffs that extends from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. I frequently hear planes taking off between 11:30 p.m. and 2:30 a.m. Please have the Airport Working Group explain how this can happen if there is a curfew. Sometimes these take-offs happen every three to four minutes for a period of about two hours.

Vonna Hammerschmitt

Newport Beach

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Fitzpatrick retains counsel

Today, I retained Steve Baric, the highly respected government and elections law attorney, to defend me against the orchestrated railroad job by my colleagues to kick me off the Costa Mesa Sanitary District’s board of directors.

I was elected with 11,783 votes in 2010, and I’ll be darned if four votes and a half-baked legal opinion can trump the electorate. I am outspoken and uncomfortable for my colleagues because I have called for competitive bidding for a trash contract that has not been opened to the market since 1943.

That’s not a typo — Costa Mesa’s residential trash contract has not been bid out since World War II! I will always fight for the taxpayers even if it means upsetting the sweetheart deals others have cut.

Jim Fitzpatrick

Costa Mesa

The writer is a member of the Costa Mesa Sanitary District board, which is seeking his removal from office, and the Costa Mesa Planning Commission.

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