WESTFIELD — Shirley Adams, a resident of Klondike Avenue in Westfield, already knows what an F-15 fighter jet sounds like.
“It’s a good ‘Sound of Freedom,’ ” she said Tuesday during the open-house portion of an in-person environmental hearing hosted by the Air National Guard preparing for new, more powerful F-35 fighter jets at the Barnes Air National Guard Base. “We’d like to know how much louder it is going to be. And what is it going to sound like at my house.”
Adams, a 25-year resident of the short street right off Routes 10 and 202 and her neighbor, Barb Sikop, were in the crowd of 30 or so neighbors attending Tuesday night’s hearing at Westfield Intermediate School.
“Their runway is right outside my house,” Sikop said. “Right there.”
Joanne and Jack Barry, of Kittredge Drive, moved in in 1979 and Jack can still tell a story of watching two pilots in A-10s, a plane previously based in Westfield, chase each other at treetop level across the neighborhood.
Today, Joanne knows when the F-15 are about to come and go on their regular patrol and training missions.
“Ten o’clock and 2, 2:30,” she said. “It’s not that bad. But how is that going to change?”
Noise impacts in the vicinity of Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport would be “significant” once the latest-generation F-35 fighters are based there in 2026, according to the draft environmental impact statement released in February.
The report,…
