Schumer: Air traffic facility will be in NY

After a meeting with the Federal Aviation Administration's top official this week, Sen. Charles Schumer said Friday that a new air traffic radar facility will be built in New York State, eliminating New Jersey as a location.

But the possibility remains that more than 950 aviation jobs currently on Long Island could be leaving Nassau and Suffolk counties.

To address concerns about possible job flight, Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he has set up a tour for FAA officials of one of the potential sites for the new building in Suffolk County.

Schumer, who met with FAA acting administrator Michael Huerta on Thursday, said that Huerta has committed to visiting Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma. It is one of the possible places where the FAA could erect its new, $95-million Integrated Control Facility that will house hundreds of air traffic controllers as part of NextGen, the agency's nationwide program to use satellite navigation for commercial flights instead of the ground-based radar system used since the 1950s. Huerta's visit could happen within weeks.

"Hopefully, the administrator's visit to MacArthur will seal the deal for Long Island," Schumer said in a statement. "It would make no sense for the FAA to combine two Long Island-based facilities, with a Long Island-based workforce, and then move the facility off Long Island."

Huerta told Schumer at the meeting that the new building would not be in New Jersey, the senator said.

Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton), a member of the House Transportation Committee, said in an interview earlier this week that FAA officials had crossed Newark off its list of possible sites for the ICF.

Friday, an FAA spokeswoman said that previous FAA statements about the ICF have always stated it would be in New York State.

Workers, including air traffic controllers, whose average annual pay tops $100,000, currently at radar facilities in Westbury and Ronkonkoma could be relocated should the FAA build its new integrated facility somewhere in upstate New York. A total of 950 workers, including managers, computer specialists, technicians and administrative personnel work at the two Long Island facilities, according to the FAA.

The project could create as many as 1,000 construction jobs, according to Bishop.

A memorandum prepared for the hearing of the U.S. House Transportation's subcommittee on Aviation and Infrastructure in May stated that the FAA had already begun planning for building the ICF at Newark Liberty International Airport.On Thursday, state and local politicians put party affiliation aside and gathered at MacArthur Airport to send a message to the FAA: Keep more than 900 federal jobs on Long Island by building the ICF at the airport.

The airport event, organized by Islip Town Supervisor Tom Croci, came a few days after members of the Long Island congressional delegation held a bipartisan rally in Westbury designed to focus attention on the fight to keep the aviation jobs on Long Island.

Other possible sites around the state are Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, Orange County, and sites in Poughkeepsie and Albany, according to government officials.

Multiple sites in Nassau and Suffolk counties have been floated as possible locations, including the Hub in Nassau and a parcel in Selden owned by Suffolk County Community College. Federal officials have stated they need about 60 acres for the new building.