Story posted Thursday, January 21, 2010
Local Officials Gather On EG Soundproofing
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials met with members of the O'Hare Noise Compatibility Commission and Township High School 214 at Elk Grove High School (EGHS) in anticipation of an upcoming visit to the school by top FAA administrators.
At issue is EGHS's eligibility to receive approximately $10 million in soundproofing funds from the FAA.
The Thursday, Jan. 14 meeting lasted about an hour and a half consisting of a tour and slideshow by district officials for the FAA.
At the meeting was FAA National Resource Expert for Policy and Legislation Nancy Williams, local FAA environmental specialists Amy Hanson and Jim Byers, several representatives from the ONCC and about a half dozen Dist. 214 officials.
Late last year EGHS was unexpectedly removed from a soundproofing grant eligibility list. The school had delayed several major construction projects in anticipation of the grants.
In early December, school, ONCC officials, U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-9th) and representatives from U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam's (R-6th) office met with FAA Associate Administrator for Airports Catherine Lang to ask her to reconsider EGHS' place on the list.
Last month, the Journal learned that Lang would visit EGHS, Carpenter Elementary School in Park Ridge and Ridgewood High School in Norridge that also had been removed from the eligibility list, by next March.
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