Letter: North Las Vegas airport expansion ruins tranquility

Thursday, May 7, 1998 | 10:51 a.m.

The county and city have elected to make the North Las Vegas Air Terminal a "mini McCarran" in the name of tourism. What once was a sleepy little airport that closed its doors at midnight is now a noisy aerodrome that is open 24 hours a day.

On Sunday mornings of days gone by, you could sit out on your patio, enjoy the paper and a cup of coffee. Today, it's close the windows and doors because of the constant drone of aircraft engines landing and taking off. Some are very quiet. But, so was the one that crashed into our neighbor's home. I have always said, "If you can hear it, we dodged another bullet."

What tragedy would have occurred had that plane crashed into the busy Wal-Mart store just 500 yards away? Or, the Albertsons just across the street. This airport is a time bomb. One day many will die here. Not to mention the increase in noise and pollution.

The powers that be have plans to expand this airport to handle larger commercial jet traffic to relieve some of McCarran's congestion. We, as a neighborhood, say no. We don't need the noise, aggravation and the threat of waking up (or not waking up) with an aircraft in our bedroom or kitchen.

The county should rethink its expansion plans for this airport. Or, be prepared to buy up a lot of real estate in the "zone." The people who live and work in this part of town need to stand up and let it be known that any elected official who supports this expansion should start looking for another line of work come election time.

Steve Bougon