 and welcome to continued channel 17 town meeting television coverage of the candidates budgets and ballot items that you voters will see on your ballot this upcoming March 6 2018 this is a live call-in show so please feel free to call us tonight if you're watching at 862 802 862 3966 thank you very much in this forum we brought together constituents from both sides of an issue facing Burlington voters this is an advisory referendum on the basing of the Vermont Air Guard F-35s at the Burlington International Airport and I'm going to take a moment to read that that's Burlington ballot item number six and it reads shall we the voters of the city of Burlington as part of our strong support for the men and women of the Vermont National Guard and especially their mission to quote protect the citizens of Vermont unquote advise the city council to one request the cancellation of the planned basing of the F-35 at Burlington International Airport and to request instead low noise level equipment with a proven high safety record appropriate for a densely populated area I'm going to repeat that this is an advisory referendum if it is voted up or down it has no direct consequence it nearly tells the mayor and the city council the general direction of city opinion based on the voters who participate on with us here tonight for in favor of this advisory referendum I have to my left Roseanne Greco she's a retired Air Force Colonel she's a current resident of South Burlington and she is also the former chair of the South Burlington City Council welcome thank you also to my left is James Lease he's a patent lawyer he's a resident of South Burlington and he has helped petition to get this ballot item in front of the voters of Burlington opposing the referendum on my right we have Bill Kehoe he's a retired Lieutenant Colonel of the Army Guard he has spent eight years serving in the Vermont legislature and 16 for the city of Burlington and he's also a current city of Burlington resident and along with Bill we have Nicole Citro she is the creator of the green ribbons for the F-35s and she is a resident of Essex Junction so welcome Nicole thank you we're having me great I'm gonna give you each a minute now to take some time and tell us your position and why this issue is important to you okay so let's start with Roseanne and then we'll go to Bill and then we'll go to James and then we'll go to Nicole okay all right so it's important to thousands of people who live in the the Burlington area if the F-35 is based here it'll be here for the next 30 to 50 years so this is a very important decision the Air Force when they wrote their environment environmental impact statement laid out the ramifications of the basing and many of those were detrimental to our area specifically they have the noise of the F-35 can harm the health of adults especially children and also there are cognitive development it also has economic consequences studies have shown that property values in this kind of noise zone decrease and there are other negative value negative impacts for the basing so because of the negative impact it's a very important decision we also know that the Air Force has made it very clear that the F-35 is not the only mission for the Air National Guard if it doesn't come here they've said there are plenty of other missions the air flying aircraft that they could have for a mission and my time is up great thank you thank you for sharing this information with this group of people really appreciate to get the information out to the voters and you got a vote please you got a vote if you haven't voted already make sure you vote by by Tuesday I'm opposing this issue because of the terminology and I'll get into that later but the F-35 is coming to Burlington and I think that this item on the ballot is sort of a yard sticker so all the people of Burlington think about the guard but I'll get into it I take you some exception the way the ballot item is worded and I know the city council did as well they wrestled with this item for about an hour we'll get to that shortly thank you very much mr. lease so I think that the best way to support the Vermont National Guard is to support a yes vote on this ballot item because the mission of the Vermont National Guard is to protect the citizens of Vermont you'll see that on the website of the Vermont National Guard and you can't protect thousands of families by harming them the Air Force did a very careful study spent years on it and came up with the conclusion that 3,000 homes are going to be in a noise danger zone and it's going to be harmful for children and adults as Roseanne pointed out so the best way to support the members of the guard is to support their mission which is to protect the citizens of Vermont and that means canceling the F-35 thank you very much and last six years ago I tied up a green ribbon on my front porch because I felt that the silent majority of the supporters of the Vermont Air National Guard and the supporters of the new F-35 were not being heard so I wanted to give them an avenue in which to do that there were many public forums that people participated in but then we also had two comment periods during the EIS process one in which the supporters produced 18,000 signatures in support of the F-35 and then the second comment period there were 10,000 postcards in support so we've already seen in the past significant support for this new jet for the air guard but I'm here because I feel that this ballot item is deceitful and it's disingenuous and I feel that if you truly support the Vermont Air National Guard then you will vote no on question six. Thank you. Thank you all for your participation for your participation again and for being here and I would like to remind viewers that this is a calling show and we will take your calls 802-862-3966 we're going to go back and forth I'm going to ask each side to share with us their thoughts and the first is to the proponents how did this referendum come about how did it come to be on the ballot specifically why now and why is it important that voters of Burlington weigh in on this? Okay so this is on the ballot as a result of thousands of signatures being gathered on petitions these last two or three months to get it on the ballot and that and the petitioning was initiated so that the voters of Burlington could weigh in on the subject until now it's been a decision made for the people instead of by the people and so the purpose of the petition is to give the voters a chance as an electorate to tell to tell the elected representatives how they feel this goes right back to 1777 when our state was founded where our country actually the Republic of Vermont was founded the idea that power belongs to the people and that the elected officials are the servants of the people and so you know Mayor Weinberger has made a very strong point that he's put 17 issues to the voters on the ballot at town meeting in the last six years well this is one issue this crucial issue for health and safety of thousands of families all around the airport has not been put to the voters by the mayor and the city council so we went to the to the voters and and collected signatures to get it on the ballot and that's how it got so you don't think to add or see I'm just you have you have a couple you have a little more time in that two minutes well I agree with what Jimmy said the other thing is that this is a very important decision and it's one that should not be taken lightly and as as Jimmy said it was made from in fact people were supporting it before they even read the information about it the information has been out now for six years it's pretty clear that this aircraft is going to cause a lot of harm to a lot of people here it's also very clear there are alternatives so we can support the guard by getting them another aircraft to fly that won't hurt anybody that's doable it's been done in other states it's even been done after planes have arrived at their basing so we have a choice we have a better choice that supports the guard as well as the people it's not this weapon system or nothing it's this weapon system or another military aircraft that wouldn't have the noise that causes the problems the f-35 I disagree you're speculating there is no alternative mission for the guard the f-35 is the plane that the air force awarded us and obviously by saying that you're putting it to the voters for the first time then you're discounting all those comments that came in during the eis comment period that's when the public was being heard because it's not up to the city of brollington it was up to the air force and the eis process was very thorough and very transparent and when they asked the public for their opinion they gave their opinion so now you're trying to say that that doesn't matter well that did matter and that was the information that the air force made their decision on and you know as I said you're speculating the adjutant general has said specifically there is no alternate mission for the air guard this clear as that I'm not speculating and Nicole I'm just using the words that the air force has said in the eis which I have here and I can show you afterwards and in court documents that I brought the air force says specifically the guard never needed the f-35 to continue to have a flying mission and they said and they said no no this is this is this was this was just august of 2016 they said if the f-35 doesn't come here the quote is there are any number of alternative aircraft the guard can fly the judge Crawford rules against us for that reason because we used your argument we said you never told us air force that there would be no other aircraft here if the f-35 doesn't come in the air force says yes we did tell you we told you four times judge Crawford said yes they did tell you they told you there will always be a flying mission for the f-35 these are now my words these are words from the air force and these are words from the federal judge prior to the basing decision no no this is after 2016 up until a pretty much so we will we're gonna get into it we'll get into more but I'm gonna turn to you all for a question with do you think this should be on the ballot at all and what impact do you think the Burlington voters should have on the basing on the decision about whether to base the f-35s at the Burlington Airport well you know I think that the democratic process is a great one that's exactly what our country provides us is if there are citizens that have concerns that if they take those concerns to their fellow voters and they get 5% of the voting public to agree with them that this is something that they can bring to their city council city government and have it put on the ballot the thing is is that in this case the decision has already been made the air force is not going to change its decision and the way that the wording of the ballot item was written was very deceitful it was very disingenuous because of the fact that showing support for the guard is not saying we're taking away your future please vote on taking away the livelihood of 1,100 people I'm built do you have some thoughts on whether this should be on the ballot yes my thoughts are this certainly the the right of petition is right of a citizenry to request the city council to put this item on the ballot and the council voted to do that but they had a lot of discussion this is the terminology and if you look at the bullface type it is in support of the guard certainly I mean something like if that were honest if that were the only item on the ballot then you would get almost 95 percent support but look at the curveball that was thrown the curveball says that request the cancellation of the planning of the plan basing of the F-35 at the airport that's not consistent with what the National Guard wants the guards and want and support and will man and will support it will activate in the F-35 when it comes next October and the second the second part of the of the ballot and then again this is advisory has no impact on anything except city council the mayor second part says request instead low noise level equipment with a proven high safety record appropriate for a densely populated area you know the item to recommend reminds me of a glider with that word I don't think so but but certainly okay all right so we did hear on this side you have about a minute to respond we did hear Jimmy Lee's I mean James Lee's from you about the wording on the ballot item Roseanne do you want to weigh in on that about the wording on the ball of course the guard is not a military plane the guard are women and men who serve our state and our country they are not equivalent to the aircraft we're talking about there are 24 other air guard units in the United States that fly military aircraft that are compatible with areas such as ours a residential area most of them have to do with transport or cargo C-130 C-17s right so the fact that we have a fighter bomber here and if another fighter bomber coming that will increase the noise four times based on what the Air Force said and will impact the population doesn't mean that that's a given there are two air guard units just in the past few years that swapped from fighter bombers to cargo aircraft why because the noise was destroying their community and they went to a quieter aircraft so the Air Force when they made their ruling and okay I'll end there so thanks for calling it looks like we do have a call so we're gonna leave our prepared questions and move on to that yeah welcome you're on live at 5 25 with questions for the folks on the F-35 hi can you hear me we can hear you okay great um Roland had mentioned that there are a lot of people would be harmed I'm particularly interested in the environmental impacts of the aircraft either with or without the crash incident great thank you very much thank you without a crash incident so I'm going to I'm going to go ahead and because that was directed at you folks I mean if you can give a minute to that answer and then you guys will have a chance well the Air Force in the EIS said the safety record of the F-35 at the time it was written was not established because it had not flown very much so they they estimated the safety of the F-35 to be most equivalent to the F-22 the F-22 is the most dangerous aircraft right now the Air Force is flying it is the aircraft that airguard pilots refused to fly because it was killing them they went on 60 minutes to complain about it so when I read that that's how that's how safe the Air Force expected the F-35 to be that's very concerning then we learned that our runway barely meets the minimum length for an F-35 on takeoff why is that important because crashes according to the Air Force and according to statistics happen most often on takeoff and landing when you don't have a very long runway it gives a pilot fewer options if a flight emergency happens it happened already at England Air Force Base the F-35 caught fire on takeoff the guard luckily of the pilot luckily was able to escape the F-35 because he was able to stop it in time a Glenn has a 10,000 foot runway we have bear a little bit over 8,000 feet so that increases the danger of this weapon system which is brand-new never been operationally deployed before the F-35 has actually had hundreds of thousands of flying hours now and it is rated as the safest airframe right now and I understand you'll pick cherry pick all your information about what it is it's gonna prove your point but the fact is is that you're speculating the Air Force is in the know the Air Force absolutely agree they are the Air Force absolutely knows more than you do and the adjutant general knows more than you do and they're bringing this jet here because it's been fully vetted and it is the choice for the Vermont Air National Guard we are very proud that the Vermont Air National Guard the first guard base in the nation has been chosen to award this jet and what in order when they selected Burlington as a site for the F-35 they looked at a number of issues one was the ability of our maintenance crews already in the Vermont Air Guard they're outstanding and they value the Air Force evaluated their skill level today there are air guards went out training to maintain and to maintain F-35s that money is already invested in their training the air guard currently has up to 15 million dollars of construction work at the airport for runways and adapting the hangers so that money is invested in people that money is invested in construction for the for the arrival of the F-35 next September thanks just like to add some 30 seconds okay so on the on the adjutant general on February 9th he changed the position of the Vermont National Guard when he said that no there's no other mission being planned so he added that qualification he recognized the qualification you're turning extra time just keep going so the so the adjutant general qualified the statement now we do have the option of getting other equipment no options in fact the Air Force has repeatedly offered alternate equipment there's a conflict between your statements and the air I'm saying the same thing that the adjutant general said there is no alternative mission for the F-35 that's you very much let's take the next call coming in hi welcome to live at 525 this is the item on the F-35 ballot referendum in Burlington yes my name is Dale Tillerson thank you for taking my call welcome to help thanks counselor former counselor council president Keo for bringing up all the facts on the issue here it's rather discouraging when you have to go to a ballot on something that is worded in a trickery way can you can you give us a question Dale yes thanks oh this is oh we're taking questions today we're well we're gonna do we're gonna do questions if you you're a brief or a brief comment please oh I was under the understanding that the comments were we're asked for not just questions so I guess my question then would be why would the proponents of this ballot item reduce themselves to trickery in the face of the voters in order to get this put forth and then I will add another comment that this is simply an advisory question and it's just like an enema it's non-binding thank you thank you very much okay so I hear that so I hear in that question I hear that we haven't we have some and and we actually get into this we have some pretty complicated differing opinions on what is going on so let's jump right to that question seems like a pretty complicated issue some say the f-35s are doomed to fail from the outset some say massive property tax value decreases home losses in neighboring towns there's various claims on noise levels numbers of flight takeoff viability of the vermont air guard top three things you think people need to know before they go to vote on this ballot item in March and then I want to give you each two minutes to respond to this and then we're going to take a question that's coming in as well all right so well first of all I think the the voters have to really know what they're voting for they cannot take this terminology and think that's supporting the guard if they vote yes if they so truly support the guard they'll vote no on this ballot item and because of its deception let me have this so can we move can we we've established that we have a difference of opinion about whether this is a deceptive item or not can we get into the top three things you need you want people to know when they walk in I want people to know that they have to know what they're voting for and what the ballot says yeah and they vote what they really if they support the guard they'll vote no yeah that's my whole message right there and do you have yes that you know the vote of no is the only way that you're showing true support for the air guard because there is no alternate mission that they can speculate all their want the adjunct generalist said no alternate mission this is the safest aircraft in the skies right now as far as military jets are concerned and the noise level that they keep claiming is not it's actually going to be quieter in f16 than in a lot of areas of this state so yeah again vote no on question six if you truly support the air guard so what get a couple minutes now also top three issues complicated differences of opinion that people have so what I would like the voters to do is to vote on the facts Nicole has said a number of times speculation this is not speculation it's in the environmental impact statement if if they want to know the page references that say the f35 is four times louder it's in here they go to the website I've cited the pages in here if they want to know the other aircraft that the air force said the air guard could fly that's in the legal documents that are also on our website so it's not speculation it's fact the united states air force I served 30 years on active duty in the air force they own the aircraft they set the mission for the air guard they give the guard the aircraft the air force says there are other missions the air guard could fly the air force says Nicole I'll show you this afterwards you can read it past tense I don't what you mean by past tense the air force sent it in the EIS the air force sent it in court documents as most recent as last year that there are other aircraft if the f35 doesn't come here there are other aircraft the air guard could fly they said specifically the air guard will always have a flying mission not speculation air force words in court documents so what I'd like the voters to do is look at the court documents I'm not speculating I'm giving you page references so you can read it yourself you don't have to take my word for it read it read what the air force said read what Judd Crawford said they said it four or five times so that 20 seconds to add something to that 20 seconds and Burlington has already voted in 2005 on what on the similar wording we had a resolution on the ballot that said the voters of Burlington strongly support the members of the armed forces in iraq and believe the best way to support them is to bring them home now this resolution builds on that adopted resolution that was adopted with 65.2 percent of the voters in Burlington and every ward in the city I know that you truly believe what it is that you read but it is past tense all that was about what was optional to the air guard up until the basing decision now that the basing decision has been made we can't sit there and say oh thanks but no we're going to take another jet that's not on the table we don't get to cherry pick it isn't done ala carte it's a matter of once the EIS process is complete and the air force made the decision that we're going to receive the jet if we pass on the f-35 we get nothing it's done lights out so that's our 30 second rebuttal we have two calls on the phone and i'm going to do something here um to our director that we probably haven't done in a while we're going to let this go over about 15 minutes so you may lose lose us on the live channel feed but you can tune into our live youtube feed and then this will be available in our continuing repeats is everybody okay with us so uh call from our first caller there hello hi welcome do you have a question for our candidates on the f-35 ballot item on the burlington ballot um yeah i'm just tuning in i don't know if this has been covered yet but i'm curious to know about how the garden mission as i understand it is to protect vermonders and i'm not really understanding how making 75 percent of winewski unlivable and damaging the health of children fits into that mission all right and i guess that question could really go to anyone okay great so i guess that gets into um some of the stuff that's gone on again those complicated issues there where there are a difference of opinions and there have been votes our um officials have taken stands in the city of winewski and in the city of self burlington and i'm wondering if both sides would give about two minutes to talk about what you feel about that or think about the impact and specifically how those cities have weighed in on this Nicole is good and again i want to remind everybody that this is about the f-35s on the ballot issue yeah as an advisory yep yep and as an advisory referendum not so much about who supports the guard more okay thank you well the thing is is that this was already posed to the burlington city council four years ago and it was based on the fact that the council voted to support the f-35 that was in part what the the air force made their decision on the south burlington city council has weighed in that they support the f-35 and the city winewski they tried to sue the government and they lost so what we're seeing is a try and change at the last minute of a decision that's already been made now winewski actually is an example of how the city actually is thriving even though they are well aware of the fact that the f-35 is coming and the grand list of the city that is lowering the property tax it's thriving there has been more construction in the last five years in that city and you know high rise apartments with condos that are going at top price and they're fully fully aware of the f-35 coming so again the voters need to know that this is a decision that the councils have already weighed in on and that to have this on the ballot that supporting the f-35 supporting the guard is a vote no on question six um nicole has mentioned before that there was a public process where by um regular citizens could convey their wishes to the air force and the air force produced those comments i have them thousands of pages of comments and 65 percent of the comments they received were against the basing 35 or four now yes all right this is and you asked something megan that i think is important you asked for our opinions and we have different opinions what i had been saying is not my opinion it's the words from the air force i have air force documents i have court documents it's not an opinion if if nicole or says that there is no other mission and the guard will close well that directly contradicts with the united states air force said in court so show me the proof i have the documents the judge ruled basically using the words of the air force saying yes air force you told us if the f-35 doesn't come here the air guard will continue to have a flying mission like they have for the last few decades so i have the documentation it's not an opinion it's the fact it's a fact that it's four times louder the air force said that it's a fact that there are other missions the air force said that it's a fact that other places have the military has reversed basing decisions that's a fact i can prove all that in documents what we hear from other folks is opinions unsubstantiated by facts if you can show me your documents i brought mine to show you seconds just remembering about the windewski and self-berling so 75 of windewski according to the air force is going to be in an area that the federal government deems unsuitable for residential use that comes to over 5,000 people the air force said that the federal government said that when you put that many people in that kind of situation that aircraft should not be here especially when there are alternatives that will not put anyone in that unsuitable for residential use area thank you you have 30 seconds i you understand the documents as your opinion as you view them the whenever you say that there was an alternate mission it's you said it yourself the word said it's past tense up until the basing decision there may have been other missions this is after the basic decision now that the decision has been made this is three years after the basic decision have an alternate mission all right great so we have some we have some documents here that unfortunately you can't read but these folks have studied mine looked at them and hopefully you're getting a chance to hear from them we're gonna hear yes we've had this this the air force held hearings from 2009 to 2013 yeah all this information has been in the EIS statement yeah and record of decision is there the guard the f-35s are coming welcome them next october they're coming one of the great things about one of the great things about for mine is that the founders of our state made the citizens the rulers and the and the elected representatives the servants that's an article six of the constitution so this is why putting the putting the matter to a vote is putting it to the rulers not to the people who've been making decisions all along that are adverse to the interests of thousands of nothing's gonna change ready here we are uh welcome caller um you are on live at 525 and this is a program on the f-35s as an advisory referendum on the ballot march 6 2018 do you have a question hello yes hi hi uh so i'm interested in knowing uh the crash would be specifically what the planes are made of and what would happen if they burn thank you very much the precautionary principle has to be used uh with the uh a threat of this magnitude so please with somebody go through that great thanks um let's have one minute on this side planes what are they made of and the issue of the crash and burn possibility so we have the brolington international airport that the air guard shares the runway with um the military jets comprise six percent of the aircraft travel at in and out of this airport so again hearkening back to the f-35 is the safest safest aircraft in the military right now the f-16 at the vermont air guard the safest in the country because of our excellent maintainers but we also have commercial jets that fly in and out of here that their rate of accident is much much higher than we would ever think to see with the military jet now of course none of us ever want to see anything crash at brolington international airport but when you look at the danger you look at the toxicity levels you look at a fully loaded fedex plane the positive materials that are in that jet and everything that there could be in their hargo the risk is greater with other airplanes coming in and out of this airport than the f-35 will ever produce to our residents okay so so actually everything nicole said is wrong the military jet uh crash rate is at least 10 times higher than that of commercial jets much much higher however the f-16 crash rate has gone down significantly this is the military jet that's based at the airport now over time when it first got here in 1986 it had the fleet of f-16s had a crash rate triple what the f-16 crash rate is now so as they're as they've had experience with crashes these planes improve the f-16 has had 350 crashes in its 30 year lifetime but it had 77 crashes before it was brought to vermont it had a million flight hours before it got to vermont in 1986 the f-35 is a the a version that we're going to get is going to have fewer than a hundred thousand less than one tenth so it's going to have much less learning much less experience much less flight hours we're going to have a much more dangerous plane but as rosanne pointed out and micole actually alluded to the plane is made of a military composite material that burns in a crash so the crash consequences are going to be even worse with toxic chemicals particulates and fibers thousands of pounds of these military composites are going to burn releasing this into the atmosphere this is something that wouldn't happen with the f-16 because it's got an aluminum body thank you we had one more call but we're lost 30 seconds back and forth go ahead everything is made up of composite materials these days the military doesn't have a super secret composite material is they do no they don't yes they do no they don't and the thing is okay and the thing is is that our vermont airguard fire and rescue team has they are second to none and how they have been trained and they know exactly what they're dealing with when it comes to any type of military material but again because you have FedEx and commercial everything that's included in those planes is noteless thank you so the airport actually someone asked the question of the safety aspect of the f-35 and the air force used the comparison of a mustang in a school bus to try to compare fighter bombers with commercial aircraft vast amount of difference that's that's in the comments sort of interesting to read right but the air force um and the military when they when they build military aircraft they use a different kind of composite material in addition to that however the f-35 has a chemical stealth coating that is classified we do know because we have we witness this is when that burns that can kill people and it has that at area 51 thank you area 51 so it seems like um it seems like a big part of this is again this pretty complicated issue of um varying facts and whether this is a referendum on the guard or a referendum on the f-35s you know finally um i think when the voters go and again this is an advisory referendum it's gonna um you know signal to the city council the the will of the folks that vote as they vote what do you hope from the mayor and the city council at that point so the current mayor stated you know unequivocal support for the f-35s coming to the to the airport uh candidate uh karina driscoll has stated that she will move with the will of the people and um candidate infinite cool closure has said that he opposes the f-35s so depending on the vote what are you hoping um the city council on the mayor will do and if we can just have a minute from each side and then a back and forth and then we'll have some closing statements i can do in 15 seconds listen listen to the people we are a democracy and go with what the majority of the individuals but more specifically what would they like how would they communicate if if the people vote um that they do not want uh the f-35 here but rather would want a another aircraft then it would be who i think it's incumbent on the city council and the mayor to communicate that to the air force jimmy do you so i think the air force won't wait for anyone to ask them when they see the vote they're going to replace the f-35 with another mission the f the air force was pressured to bring the f-35 here in the first place we know that because in the lawsuit we have discovery and the documents that we got in discovery showed that the air force uh was pressured by senator lehi so we know that this is a pressure decision when the people of burlington vote vote yes on ballot item six to cancel the f-35 i think all of the political leaders in the state and the air force will accept the will of the people i hope the voters don't get fooled by this they were tricked they they would be tricked by the language because it wraps it up in a support that i think is disingenuous and then it talks about things that is not in the control as much as we absolutely if we we honor the fact that we are given in this democracy a voice but the thing is is that we've already been given a voice within the eis comment period and i don't believe that um voters that truly support the guard and support the f-35 um they don't want another mission they want the f-35 so voting no we'll do that when when the results of this election are tallied a letter will go to the secretary of the air force and the secretary of the air force will accept it and place it on file the f-35s are coming great so closing comments again we'll go back and forth we'll go in reverse order i think we started with rizan and went to kihel and then went to james leis and nicole so we'll start with billy kihel and we'll do that all backwards first of all vote for march on march six and before it yeah so no on the item because the item is deceptive and if you really want to support the guard you're going to vote no because the f-35 is coming to the benefit of the national defense system and as a defense for our for our country vote no less than a minute thank you very much okay well i rather than use my words i think what i'll do is read what the air force said since we've had a back and forth about did they say it or didn't so this is um from march 13th 2016 as part of court documents the air force said inform the public that if berlington was not selected the basis current mission would continue then they said on march the 7th 2016 many f-16s are being retrofitted to extend their service life integrating the air um is leading to a massive redistribution of f-16s throughout the fleet including the national guard and reserves had the air force not decided to base the f-35 a at berlington the present f-16s could well have been replaced by other f-16s and finally judge crawford in his ruling on um august the 10th 2016 said there is no indication in the record that defendant that's the air force has decided to close the vermont air guard base if the f-35 does not arrive arrive the record shows the opposite flight or plane planes of one description or another will continue to be based at the vermont air national guard and that's on page 34 thank you very much i just like to add um we're going to go back to nicole and then you're going to actually have the last word i think that this is great as much as we disagree and as much as we're going to go back and forth about what you think and what i think when reading the same material um it's that freedoms that the air guard is protecting they're enabling us to be a nation that can voice our opinion without any ridicule or um adverse reaction from the government um but again the vermont adjutant general is speaking on behalf of the air guard he is speaking on behalf of the air force there is no alternate mission for the air guard and by voting no on item number six you are reinforcing your true support for the air guard and we will be welcoming them into our airspace come next year thank you very much okay so supporting equipment is one thing supporting men and women is another and the best way to support the men and women is to get them equipment that's compatible with their location in a densely populated area so that they don't harm thousands of families especially the children whose cognitive development will be impaired by the extreme noise of the f-35 which as rossin pointed out and the air force makes clear in the environmental impact statement they did the measurements they made the uh they wrote it up in their document it's going to be more than four times louder than the f-35 i think we have to then the f-16 i think we have to respect the voters that they can read the they can read the resolution carefully they understand that the best way to support our men and women in the guard is to give them the right kind of equipment and not give them inappropriate equipment for where they're located thank you very much thank you all and i would have to agree a lively and friendly conversation we're going to subscribe to nobody hit anybody that was nobody got hurt yeah it's going to be on netflix thank you all for watching um and don't forget to vote uh march 6 2017 uh 2018 and um in burlington we also have walk in if you're not registered rock right into your poll and you can register on the same day uh to vote where you can go today tomorrow and uh register downtown at city hall early um thank you all again for being here and thank you for watching channel 17 television it's been a pleasure