Wendell News Outlet

Change

For the last few days I have been thinking about Mr. Crammer’s opinion about a regional airport located in Wendell. As a parent of children in an elementary school here in town, I am sure that I am looking at this from a different perspective than he is. I am aware of the large percentage of families that receive free and reduced lunches. From first hand experience, I understand that families that are under financial stress are often spread thin in many other domestic areas of their lives. This percentage is growing here in eastern Wake County.

Trying to understand why this is happening is difficult. My perspective is that since the decline of the tobacco industry, this region has not had a reason to attract new businesses and industries until recently. The opening of highways 264 and the 540 now makes Eastern Wake County geographically commutable to both the greater Raleigh area and Interstate 95. Eastern Wake County now has something to sell that will attract businesses and industries....location, location, location.

Mr. Crammer stated that he moved to Wendell for “peace and serenity”. I think that many of our residents, including myself, moved here for similar reasons...”small town charm”. We don’t want our little town to change. The reality is that change happens and it cannot be stopped. Which type of change is worse, an alarmingly high poverty rate or the urban sprawl that comes with economic prosperity?

Mr. Crammer describes a regional airport as a “fire breathing behemoth, belching toxic fumes; congestion and noise conditions you have to shout above to be heard”. This is an accurate description of many things in our society including home heating furnaces, industrial furnaces, cars, trucks, trains, and yes, planes and helicopters. With each of the mentioned “fire breathers” the question is “What is the affected zone and are the positive consequences worth the negative consequences?”

Mr. Crammer used the Van Nuys Airport locate just outside of Los Angeles, CA as an example of a regional airport trying to deal with it excessive noise problems. Here is a link to the Van Nuys Airport’s webpage http://www.lawa.org/vny/generalDescription.cfm and a link to the airport’s brochure http://www.lawa.org/vny/pdf/Where%20Progress%20Takes%20Flight%20Brochure.pdf
This airport is over 80 years old. It is the world’s busiest regional airport. It has an economic impact of over one billion dollars a year to the local economy. I am sure that 80 years ago when the airport was first planned, nobody thought it would ever get to be this big.

Fortunately, eastern Wake County can benefit from this airports experience. We can plan for a regional airport to be an economic engine for our region. We can plan for a noise affected zone and use this area as commercial and industrial zoning. We can plan for increased traffic demands. Environmental impact studies can be done. The Environmental Protection Agency, the North Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the Army Corp of Engineers, and other agencies will have to be involved to make sure that our regions water supplies will not be negatively affected. Right now we are in a position of negotiation. Now is the time to raise concerns and work together to find the answers or compromises.

Change is happening. We can not stop it. We can only guide it along and try to make it work for us. Unfortunately, individuals resist change. We don’t like it and we will fight it as best we can. When we fight change, we lose the opportunity to guide it along. I hope Wake County and the Town of Wendell chooses to guide its change towards a more economically brighter future by embracing and planning a well thought out regional airport and surrounding area. The decisions surrounding this airport will have an economic impact on the entire region for the next hundred years as it did in California’s Van Nuys Regional Airport.


Gill Gunderson
Wendell, NC