This notice From the Schaumburg Review. 

Outdoor noise levels recorded during the month of November — including 10 days of data recorded following the opening of a new runway at O’Hare Airport — will be among topics of discussion at two upcoming meetings of the O’Hare Noise Compatibility Commission (ONCC).

ONCC Executive Director Brian Gilligan said the commission’s Technical Committee will review the data at a meeting at 9 a.m. on Jan. 27, at Mount Prospect Village Hall, 50 S. Emerson St., and the results will be formally presented to the entire commission at its regular meeting at 8 a.m. on Feb. 6, at 8 a.m. at Rosewood Banquets, 9421 W. Higgins Road, Rosemont.

Both meetings are open to the public.

Data from a portable noise monitor located near Gillick and Prospect avenues in Park Ridge will be released publicly prior to these meetings, Gilligan said. Noise levels recorded by the monitor will be published on Jan. 23 on the ONCC’s web site,www.oharenoise.org, and at www.flychicago.com.

Park Ridge residents who say air traffic and noise has increased since the Nov. 20 opening of O’Hare 9L/27R runway demanded that recorded noise levels be released prior to the ONCC’s February meeting.

With the recent expansion of O’Hare airport it is important to note that the Airline industry is heavily subsidized by the taxpayers. It is hard to argue that the expansion would have even been proposed, let alone been made, if Mayor Daley and his allies hadn’t requested huge sums of taxpayer money for the airport.

Using taxpayer dollars on airports is significantly different than using taxpayer dollars on the roads. Roads are entirely financed by gasoline taxes, which total 39.5 cents per gallon in Illinois.  Airport construction funds don’t come from taxes on jet fuel, air travel, or shipping, they come primarily from the general revenue fund. In fact a large percentage of the money comes from general fund through gasoline taxes.

The O’Hare expansion should not have been done with taxpayer dollars unless the money came entirely from taxes on the airlines, as the gasoline tax does for the roads. Also, the City of Chicago should not have the power to use eminent domain to force viable, non-subsidized businesses out of Bensenville and Elk Grove Village in favor of United & American Airlines who recieve tens of millions of dollars a year in corporate welfare through projects like the taxpayer financed O’Hare expansion.

I would not be opposed to O’Hare expansion if the Airline industry financed the expansion themselves and did not use the cohercive power of eminent domain to forcibly remove small business owners. Small businesses are just as important to our local economy as the big guys. Every business should be treated equally before the law when it comes to public policy.

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