The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) met with several senior advisors to New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill on October 8 to express concern about the push from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to evict tenants at Aeroflex-Andover Airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe appreciate Governor Sherrill\u2019s staff taking the time to meet with us,\u201d said AOPA Eastern Regional Manager Sean Collins. \u201cThe governor\u2019s team asked engaging and relevant questions about the airport, its operations, and what its future could look like.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The meeting comes after months of concern from airport tenants who were first notified in June that they would be evicted. The NJDEP said at the time that many of the hangars needed to be demolished and that only the New Jersey Forest Fire Service would be able to use the remaining hangar space in the future. Tenants have since received formal eviction notices giving them until December 31 to vacate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI visited the airport a few weeks after the first notice went out to tenants,\u201d said AOPA Vice President of Airports and State Advocacy Leon Jackler. \u201cIt is as clear now as it was then that the hangars should be repaired, not torn down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe effort to preserve Aeroflex-Andover Airport has drawn broad bipartisan support from leaders across the spectrum,\u201d said Jackler. \u201cAndover Township Mayor Thomas Walsh, State Senator Parker Space, Assemblymembers Dawn Fantasia and Mike Inganamort, as well as Congressman Josh Gottheimer, have all publicly opposed evicting these tenants and demolishing the hangars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At a news conference held at Aeroflex-Andover Airport on October 5, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) said the state\u2019s own engineering assessment found hangar repairs would cost $4.7 million\u2014far less than the $8 million needed to tear them down, or the more than $11 million it would cost if the state builds replacement hangar space for the Forest Fire Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gottheimer also highlighted AOPA\u2019s advocacy at Aeroflex, in which the organization warned that forcing tenants out of the hangars would likely shutter two airport businesses\u2014a flight school and a maintenance shop\u2014and ultimately put the airport at risk of closure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is not on the governor,\u201d said Gottheimer, who added that he believes the governor\u2019s team wants to solve the problem. \u201cI’m going to fight this day in and day out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jackler and Collins said they heard a similar message in their meeting with Sherrill\u2019s office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe heard no indication that the governor wants to shutter local businesses, including Andover Flight Academy, and her team appears to be seeking alternatives to the NJDEP plan,\u201d said Collins. \u201cWe also urged her staff to hold an in-person meeting with local stakeholders to discuss Aeroflex-Andover and broader concerns about the New Jersey airport system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAOPA looks forward to working with Governor Sherrill, Congressman Gottheimer, and the many other state and local officials who want to see this and other airports across the state thrive,\u201d added Jackler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) met with several senior advisors to New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill on October 8 to express concern about the push from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to evict tenants at Aeroflex-Andover Airport. \u201cWe appreciate Governor Sherrill\u2019s staff taking the time to meet with us,\u201d said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[33,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-airports","category-new-jersey"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36860"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36861,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36860\/revisions\/36861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}