Sunday, May 8, 2005
Mather Airport Celebrates 10 Years
KTXL-TV Ch 40 (FOX), Sacramento (CA)
RANCHO CORDOVA — Mather Airport celebrated its 10 year anniversary as a civilian facility Sunday. The air force base closed in 1993. Today Mather serves as a county-run cargo airport. As for Mather’s future, management says they would like to lease even more buildings and grow their cargo business. Some residents aren’t happy about the news. Six years ago, the Lockett family of Folsom researched noise concerns before buying their dream home. They say neither the city, county, nor their builder told them the house is directly under Mather’s flight path.
“Being awakened at night is the worst but it’s loud enough to stop conversation if we’re in the yard,” Heidi Lockett said.
The Locketts spent 2,500 dollars trying to soundproof their master bedroom. They also attended meetings and watched a citizen’s group make recommendations to airport officials, but to no avail. They say the noise has never gotten better.
“We meet all the time with the FAA constantly. We talk. We have chief pilots’ meetings with the operators here to heighten their awareness of the noise sensitive areas around our community,” airport spokesperson Cheryl Marcell said.
“If they’re starting to do some of these things to help out that’s great. They need to go further; many, many steps further to take care of the problem,” Lockett said.
Until then, the Locketts and other area residents won’t be joining in on any celebration.
