By Staff
Dole requested additional, ‘accessible’ spot in state
By NIKIE MAYO
News Editor
Residents will get at least one more opportunity than they had planned to voice their opinions about the Navy-proposed outlying landing field in eastern North Carolina.
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole announced late Tuesday that the Navy has agreed to schedule another public hearing on the latest OLF impact study. The hearing is scheduled for April 17 in Charlotte.
Dole, a North Carolina Republican, wrote to Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter last week to request a seventh public hearing.
Six other public hearings were scheduled in eastern North Carolina, in each of the counties that could be home to the potential pilot-training OLF. Four of those have already taken place, but the other two, scheduled for Beaufort and Washington counties next week, are nearest the Navy’s preferred site.
The hearing will be held in Ballroom A at the Charlotte Convention Center on South College Street, with its time format being the same as those followed during the previous hearings.
An information session lasts from 4:30-6:30 p.m. and the hearing runs from 7-10 p.m.
Norman said Dole’s staff will attend the meeting in Charlotte, just as staff members have attended those in the eastern part of the state.
Norman said Dole would be “asking questions of the Navy” during the public-comment period, which runs through April 24.