NYS Senator Joe Addabbo's Statement on the Proposed Cuts to NYC Homeland Security Federal Funding

NYS Senator Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr. (D-Queens), released the following statement on the New York State Senate Homeland Security hearing held on Friday, April 8, 2011, and the proposed cuts to New York City’s Homeland Security federal funding:

It was my intent to participate in a focused hearing which was to examine the security of the New York City residents, and surrounding areas, ten years after the tragedy of 9/11. Based on the testimony of witnesses and my questioning of those witnesses, my main concern continues to be the governmental funding and interaction of the entities involved in maintaining the safety of individuals, namely the NYPD, FDNY, MTA and Port Authority. I intend, as the ranking member of the Senate Veterans, Homeland Security and Military Affairs Committee, to continue my efforts in finding the means available to improve the safety and security of people locally and throughout the city and state.

Tempers Flare Over Jamaica Bay Airport Expansion by Erica Sherman - Sheepshead Bay News Blog

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Members of the Jamaica Bay Task Force Group (JBTF) hosted a meeting last week to decry plans calling for the destruction of 400 acres of Jamaica Bay wetlands to clear the path for a runway expansion project at John F. Kennedy Airport.

More than 150 people, including the JBTF — a cadre of citizenry, scientists, and federal, state, regional, and local agency representatives, staunchly guarding the wildlife refuge for more than 20 years — crowded into the American Legion Hall at 209 Crossbay Boulevard in the Broad Channel section of Queens during what was, at times, a heated dialogue over the Regional Plan Association’s (RPA) report, “Upgrading to World Class – The future of the New York Regions Airports” (pages 150 to 154), which proposes eliminating a sizeable acreage of “what is not simply New York City’s ecological crown jewel but a wetlands and estuarine area of national importance,” according to a press release from NYC Park Advocates.

“One of the major shortcomings of the report was that actual users, including environmentalists and civic organizations were not consulted,” said Geoffrey Croft, the president of NYC Park Advocate, of the report, developed by a conglomerate of multi-tiered stakeholders from all levels of government and funded by the Port Authority.

Croft’s blog A Walk in the Park reports that attendees delivered impassioned pleas, and one — Daniel Mundy, Jr. vice president of Jamaica Bay Ecowatchers and president of Broad Channel Civic Association — even presented a PowerPoint presentation refuting the alleged findings of a multitude of the RPA’s “inaccurate air travel projections from prior reports beginning in 1947.”

“The nature of the proposal is outrageous,” said Mundy.

According to the release by NYC Park Advocates, the destruction of the wetlands, “whose federal wildlife refuge is ‘the size of 10 Central Parks,’” would require an act of Congress.

“I am not going to let that happen,” said Rep. Anthony Weiner, of the plan. In a letter voicing their opposition, signed by 21 groups and sent last month to Port Authority Executive Director Christopher O. Ward, they pleaded that the Port Authority “consider other available alternatives for meeting the region’s airport capacity needs.”

Read the rest of the article at the Sheepshead Bite site...Click here

Port Authority Not Maintaining JFK Fences: Critics by Philip Messing - NYPOST.com

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The Port Authority is under renewed fire for failing to maintain a quarter mile section of fencing adjacent to Kennedy Airport – the latest problem to bedevil the agency’s beleaguered $100 million state-of-the-art security system that is now three years beyond sechedule.

The latest flap arose when a section of fencing adjacent to the eastern edge of the airport went down during recent winter snow storms, leaving runway 4-Left, which abuts Jamaica Bay, exposed and vulnerable to potential terrorists or trespassers, critics maintain.

A Port Authority spokesman today threw a cold blanket on the hot charges, dismissing the seriousness of the alleged security breach.

"Security was never compromised and the area was secure and is secure," the spokesman insisted.

Other sources, however, claim the porous fencing is the most recent problem to have befallen a highly-touted security apparatus the agency purchased amid much fanfare from Ratheon in 2009.

The safety network — dubbed the Perimeter Intrusion Detection System , or PIDS – was supposed to provide state-of-the-art electronic fencing complete with motion sensors and closed-circuit cameras that would immediately pinpoint someone trying to get on a runway to attack a plane at JFK, La Guardia, Newark and Teterboro airports.

But the system has faced a troubling series of delays — and Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward recently admitted at a public hearing that he could not yet predict when the system would become fully operational.

Paul Nunziato, head of the police union for PA cops, said the danges posed by the faulty fence were heightened by the agency’s refusal to staff police patrols.

"The Port Authority eliminated all perimeter police patrols at JFK Airport approximately five years ago in anticipation of the installation of PIDS," said Nunziato, president of the Port Autority Police Benevolent Association.

A PAPD insider told The Post that the area of fencing that was most recently compromised went down about two months ago and was not repaired until Wednesday, in advance of a Channel 7 News report.

The source added that airport runway fencing is fragile because it is constructed of plastic mesh, rather than more sturdy metal, which can interfere with aircraft instrument landing systems and other navigational aids.souce said.

"It has to be non-metalic, which is a defiiciency and means that [PA officias] have to pay more attention to it," the source insisted.