The Community Meeting with the Border Patrol
and "Air Operations" was held June 19th
| Arivacans gathered once
again to meet with representatives of the Border Patrol and Customs and
Border Protection Air Operations. John Stonehouse, who directs the
air operations for the Tucson Sector, presented a coherent look at the
activity under his direction, and offered himself as the "go-to person" in
the event of any possible abuse or dangerous flying by his agents.
His pilots are not subject to FAA regulations, but should never engage in
"dusting", nor fly in an unsafe manner. John can be reached at (520)
584-2450. Unfortunately, Gary Robison of the Tucson Sector was not able to answer the community's questions about proposed tower locations for the new virtual fence initiative. And, although we have been told that the current "Arivaca Tower" will be removed, it now appears that there will be a new tower placed in the same location. Representatives at the meeting denied this, but we have located the coordinates for the new tower at "Site 38", and they are the coordinates of the current tower. The draft Environmental Assessment regarding the proposed 57 new towers can be downloaded online or viewed at the Arivaca Library. Go to U.S. Customs and Border Protection - Border Security and scroll down to the Tucson West Environmental Assessment. The latitude/longitude coordinates for each tower are now included in an "errata" page of this document. For convenience, this page is copied here. The tower at Site 38 isn't on this list, its lat/long coordinates are: 31.54955953, -111.33706415 . Instructions for comments are below. Comments must be received by the DHS by Saturday, July 5th. Celebrate our "independence" by faxing off a comment on the 4th of July!!!
|
