Bring it on, Davis community tells Air Force

Layton • What's a little more noise when you have two U.S. senators, a congressman, four state senators, a state representative, one county commissioner, five mayors and two city councilman all lined up to welcome a new fighter jet to Hill Air Force Base?

The elected officials kicked off a two-hour public hearing Tuesday night on the draft Environmental Impact Statement that assesses the effects of making Hill the first active-duty base for the F-35 fighter jet.

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Speak your mind

Two more public hearings on the draft environmental impact statement are planned:

Ogden High School

West Wendover Branch Library in Wendover, Nev.

An open house begins at 5 p.m. each night, and a public hearing at 6 p.m. Public comments will be accepted through June 1.

The draft EIS can be found at www.accplanning.org

Post a Comment

Not one of the two dozen people who offered comments criticized the plan, though several acknowledged the EIS finding that three squadrons of F-35s — 72 jets — would mean slightly more and louder jet noise.

«I don't believe the noise level of the F-35 is going to cause any effects other than we'll stand a little straighter as we salute them overhead,» said state Sen. Jerry Stevenson, a former Layton mayor.

Current Mayor Steve Curtis said he was at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida last week and watched an F-35 take off, followed by an F-16.

«If you turned your back, you couldn't tell the difference,» he said.

The northern Utah base was identified several years ago as the preferred alternative among active-duty bases to host the F-35s, which are expected to go into service in spring 2015. A Vermont base is the preferred alternative among National Guard air bases. The Air Force expects to pick one of each in the late fall, after gathering public comment.

The F-35 would replace the aging fleet of F-16s, now numbering 57. Pilots of the 388th and 419th Fighter Wings train over the Utah Test and Training Range in the west desert.

The EIS said bringing the jets to Hill would cost anywhere from $18 million to $41 million in construction, and Hill would net — under the rosiest scenario — only 13 more support jobs. A slight elevation in sulfur dioxide emissions could be expected, it said.

Col. Scott Long, commander of the 388th, said before the hearing that he's been flying F-16s since 1990, and the old jets can't compare. «It would be like jumping from a Corvair to a Corvette,» Long said.

Sen. Mike Lee had to leave before the public hearing, but said he expects a green light for the F-35 in Congress, especially since the government has already spent billions of dollars on development over two decades.

«There are some things as a country we can't afford not to do,» he said.

kmoulton@sltrib.com

Copyright 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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