DANVERS — Beverly Airport has received a significant decrease in noise complaints from neighbors 18 months into its new airport manager’s tenure.
While the airport fielded 50 to sometimes 70 noise complaints a month at the beginning of the year, only three have so far been reported in December, Beverly Airport Manager Gabriel Hanafin told the Danvers Select Board.
The airport received 341 noise complaints in 2024 altogether, he said.
The sound of flying aircrafts from the airport has been a sore spot for Danvers residents living around the facility for years, but the issue grew worse during the COVID-19 pandemic, they said.
At the time of Hanafin’s hiring in mid 2023, neighbors often complained of planes flying low over their homes at all times of the day and frequently performing stop and go procedures, which can make the crafts louder than when they are in consistent flight.
The airport’s voluntary noise abatement program was doing little to address problems, they said at the time. Mixed with the use of leaded fuel in the many small aircrafts that fly out of the airport, neighbors and Danvers officials, including the Select Board, made multiple requests for the airport to take action.
After using his first six months in the job to observe what was and wasn’t working at the airport, Hanafin has implemented a new noise abatement program that tracks and follows up with each complaint.
He reaches out to complainants to learn more about the type of disturbance and aircraft involved, then speaks to the pilot of that plane to make recommendations on creating less of a disturbance over homes, Hanafin said.
“What I do want to hang my hat on that is very noticeable is the change in tone of some of these complaints,” he said.
“At the beginning, people were very angry, and rightfully so, because they weren’t being listened to and now with this tracking, with this commission, now that we’re starting to reach out to residents, now that we’re starting to actually follow up on the complaints, there’s a very noticeable change in tone. Now conversation is happening and there are bridges being built.”
Hanafin doesn’t quite have a 100% response rate to complaints, but said he is working to improve the new system.
“Before that there was no system tracking those noise complaints,” he said. “What was happening was residents, our neighbors, were filing noise complaints whether through the website, calling the airport, emailing a general airport email, and there wasn’t any follow-up happening because there was no one tracking where those complaints were coming from and who they needed to be addressed with.”
Complaints have come from 33 homes in the area since the beginning of the year, 19 of which are in Danvers, he said.
The new tracking system has kept pilots accountable. Noise issues have also decreased due to increased user fees and fuel taxes at the airport that have helped lower its air traffic, Hanafin said.
“The fees weren’t implemented to necessarily decrease operations, but I think before we were very, very cheap and that people would fly into Beverly because it was the cheapest option,” he said. “Now I think that some of the fees increasing has leveled the playing field a little bit where no one feels like they’re getting a free ride coming to Beverly.”
As for the issue of leaded fuel use, it’s not possible yet for small piston-engine planes (which the airport mainly serves) to use unleaded fuel, Hanafin said.
The Federal Aviation Administration has set a 2030 deadline to mandate unleaded fuel for all aircrafts. The use of lead in fuel can cause a number of serious health issues, especially in children, and these are the last modes of transportation in the United States that are allowed to use leaded fuel.
Several companies are working on an unleaded fuel for such aircraft, but nothing has yet been approved, Hanafin said.
“I wish this was a 2023 deadline. I’d love to see this done yesterday,” he said, noting he lives under the flight path of Lawrence Airport. “I have two very young kids at home and I want them to be able to come to the airport and come to work with me and not have to worry about lead poisoning in the back of my mind.”
Neighbors have also been concerned by efforts to expand the airport.
A plan to construct a 39,900-square-foot storage hangar on the Danvers side of the airport was approved in June.
The airport plans to completely reconstruct its main runway in fiscal 2027 because the current one is well past its lifespan, Hanafin said. The project will add 300 feet to both sides of the runway not to attract larger aircrafts to the airport, as some neighbors fear, but to make the runway safer if they do land there per FAA recommendations, he said.
Select Board Chair Daniel Bennett is concerned the airport hasn’t conducted an environmental impact report to assess the effects of additions to the airport and future work it might conduct.
“You haven’t volunteered to do that,” he noted of the requested report Tuesday. “( Beverly Mayor Mike) Cahill was sent a letter requesting that to be done. I don’t know that there was a response, but that’s still hanging out there without any action and we want to know what’s going on.”
Environmental assessments on the new main runway are underway, Hanafin said.
Select Board member Maureen Bernard said she was encouraged by Hanafin’s approach.
“This is the first time that I feel that you’re communicating with the neighbors,” she said. “To take their complaints, to talk to them, to meet with them, that’s what we would like.”
Residents reiterated many of the concerns Hanafin addressed that night, likening the facility to “a mini Logan Airport” with its recently approved expansion. They also argued the town should have more control on what happens at the airport since the new hangar sits on Danvers land and the aircrafts are creating lead and noise pollution over town residents.
“They’ve been telling us they’ve been doing stuff (for years) and they did nothing, so we have to make these people accountable,” Danvers resident Tony Bettencourt said.
Contact Caroline Enos at [email protected]
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