By LEONARD GRAY

DESTREHAN – The Federal Aviation Administration held two public forums on the planned expansion of Louis Armstrong International Airport, but most St. Charles Parish officials were unaware of the meetings, held at the Jerusalem Shrine Temple in Ormond Tuesday and Wednesday.

Steve Sirmon, with Parish President Albert Laque’s office, commented, “This caught us completely by surprise. The FAA handled it, and handled it poorly.”

What is more, neither meeting was held in the affected community, which irked Ama resident Jara Roux, for one.

District Two Councilman Brian Fabre, who represents the Ama area, said he only received notice of the Tuesday meeting on the following day, upon his return from a legislative confererence in Washington D.C. Coincidentally, while in Washington, Fabre spoke with Sens. John Breaux and Mary Landrieu and Rep. Billy Tauzin, all of whom pledged their continued support of St. Charles Parish’s view. In addition, Congressman David Vitter has likewise gone on record with the same stance.

“It’s crazy that a meeting for Ama residents to be held in Destrehan,” Roux said. “Are we annoyed about it? Yes! It’s very disturbing.”

Fabre is trying to arrange another public meeting with the FAA consultants before the end of March, perhaps at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Ama. The planned project directly affecting St. Charles Parish is a north-south runway, to be located entirely in the parish, just north of James Business Park. Placing a runway there, however, could prompt relocation of hundreds of St. Rose families and increase jet noise over St. Rose and Ama, especially.

Tuesday’s meeting, for Ama residents, was sparsely attended, according to Councilman-at-Large G. “Ram” Ramchandran, who estimated perhaps 20 to 25 people made their way from Ama to Destrehan for the meeting.

District Three Councilwoman Dee Abadie, who made both meetings with Ramchandran, said they only found out about the meetings when Aviation Board member Henry Smith, who represents St. Charles Parish, notified them by telephone the day of the Tuesday meeting.

“I got off the plane at 5:30, got my luggage at 6 and found out from my husband I had a meeting at 6:30,” Abadie added. “I was very upset when I got back from (the National Association of County Organizations legislative conference in Washington, D.C.) to find out about the meetings.”

She continued that it bothered her neither meeting was held in the affected communities, which would have possibly generated better attendance.

Likewise, Laque only found out about the meetings Wednesday night, while watching the late-night news.

“I was a little disappointed,” Laque said. “If I had known and if I couldn’t have made it, I’d have sent someone to represent me.”

The stated purpose of the meeting was to discuss the environmental impact statement study underway, due to be completed by September, according to Aviation Board member Henry Smith, who has represented St. Charles Parish on the board since 1985.

Ramchandran said 500 invitations were sent to each community for the forums which, according to Abadie, were based on foregone conclusions.

She added it was made very clear the meetings were not about if the runway should be built, but when.

Smith disagreed with Abadie, and said “there are so many avenues and levels of approval” the project could not get started for another 10 years, and that is if there is no lawsuit filed, an unlikely circumstance.

Abadie speculated as well that the reason the New Orleans Aviation Board is doing this push for construction of a new north-south runway is to compete successfully with the Louisiana Airport Authority’s planned regional airport/intermodal center, which is now in site-selection phase, with FAA funding and the governor’s support.

Smith disagreed again, and explained the meetings were held at that particular time, as the time of reporting was just coming around.

Abadie also disagred with consultants conducting the meeting about whether an additional runway was even necessary, and prompted them to admit it is not because the airport is running at full capacity, but instead to cut weather-related delays.

“Isn’t that just a scheduling problem?” she asked, and got no reply.

Meanwhile, more meetings are being scheduled, with Fabre hoping for an Ama meeting before the end of March.

“We haven’t played the last card yet,” Laque commented.