Jan Decalzo writes: In Craig Cox's Minneapolis Observer there is a story that should shake the airport activists out of their lethargy (haven't heard a peep lately). It is the story about a group studying the possibility of adding a huge air cargo facility at MSP. Air cargo moves at night and, if this happens, this will mean noise at absolutely the most sensitive hours. Wonder what happened to the idea of such a facility at Rochester - a much more environmentally suited airport for this sort of things.
Dan Boivin responds: As the Minneapolis representative on the Metropolitan Airports Commission, I want to respond to the recent posting concerning air cargo and noise pollution over Minneapolis. The group that is studying adding a cargo facility is still working on the issues and looking at the next logical steps. The study examines opportunities for all of the communities in Minnesota including many very small locations that envision a new major Cargo-Port in the future. Those communities include Rochester and St. Cloud besides the Twin Cities. All would love to be the international cargo location for the US. In fact, the concept is 10 to 20 years away. In the meantime, MSP will remain the primary cargo airport for the region with a concept that would require the construction of an off-airport distribution facility where cargo containers would be built-up and transferred to the airport for loading onto aircraft. Mayor Rybak and members of the City Council have been directly involved with discussions with community leaders outside the Twin Cities concerning their interest in the project as well as meeting with MAC officials. Hopefully, nighttime cargo activity has not and will not be a serious concern in the future. In order to meet the scheduling requirements for package transfer to the continuing flight, cargo carriers must depart MSP before 11 pm to arrive in Memphis(Fedex) or Louisville(DHL) early enough to unload-reload-depart to final destinations. Just the reverse is true as well. Air freight cannot arrive before 6am due to time required for package handling. Dan Boivin Fulton TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
