The Burlington, Vermont City Council meeting this week featured debates over a resolution on the continued basing of the F-35 at the National Guard base and the mayor’s plan to deal with ongoing safety concerns in the city.
For more than an hour residents of Burlington queued up to ask city councilors to pass a resolution asking the state Congressional delegation to request that the F-35’s based at the Vermont National Guard Base be replaced with a new mission. Ben Cohen summarized many of the concerns expressed by fellow residents.
“We in Burlington or in Williston hear the jet blast of the F-35 and we think it’s awful. But we are not in the high noise area,” noted Cohen. “I am appalled at the unfairness of Burlington allowing its airport to be used to operate aircraft that oppresses New Americans and low income residents of our neighboring towns in Winooski and South Burlington.”
The resolution was introduced by Ward 2 Progressive Gene Bergman.
“This is really a very simple resolution despite its length,” Bergman said. “We have years of experience with the F-35’s. We know the harmful health effects of the noise they create. We know the harmful impact on housing. We know the disruptions they cause. We know we need a different mission. A different mission that’s good for our people’s health and the economy. And we know our Congressional delegation has the power to ask the Air Force to change the mission.”
North District Independent Mark Barlow voted against the proposal.
“The question about changing VTANG’s (Vermont Air National Guard) mission has been asked by this council before and it’s been answered by the Air Force. No new information was offered here tonight,” asserted Barlow. “I reached out to VTANG after this resolution came forward. They’re already working on changes to their operational plan that will make significant improvements to the noise levels in communities surrounding the airport. I believe the resolution is flawed in its assumption that other flying missions are available. And in the examples given in the resolution only one of the five examples cited were changes in a flying mission. The other four lost their flying missions.”
The resolution passed on an 11 to 1 vote.
Progressive Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak presented a memo to city councilors outlining her administration’s approach to safety. She noted there are a number of overlapping and complex challenges.
“We have invested actually millions of dollars in the Fiscal Year ’25 budget to specifically prioritize and address community safety issues in a multifaceted kind of a way,” the mayor said. “We will be hiring Ingrid Jonas who is a retired Vermont State Police officer for the Senior Advisor on Community Safety. We’re trying to really advance different strategies because there’s multiple areas that we’re trying to improve conditions.”
East District Democrat Tim Doherty, a former federal prosecutor in Burlington, told the mayor there is considerable concern about how courts are dealing with repeat offenders and it is an issue that must be addressed.
“I’m gratified to hear that you’re engaging on the question of pretrial supervised release. This is obviously a tremendous concern when we see reports of people being arrested and then immediately released and then reoffending and being arrested and immediately released,” Doherty said. “What really struck me is how absolutely flagrant the criminal conduct has become. There appears to be no sense anymore that one even needs to hide the fact that you are engaged in such really serious criminal conduct.”
No action was taken on the mayor’s memo. The mayor’s office is planning a public forum on community safety on September 5th.
