Residents take dim view of airport lights

In the daytime, Marble Hill in Stow is clearly visible to pilots flying into the Minute Man Air Field's two crisscrossing asphalt and gravel runways. At night, with few lights to illuminate the area surrounding the airstrip, the hill looms in their vision as a massive mound of blackness, said Don McPherson, the facility's owner.

"In the day, you can see" the hill, he said. "But at night, it's a big black hole."

But McPherson's intention to mount three red lights on top of a pole on the hill as a beacon for pilots has not been well received by some in town. Marble Hill lies in the center of a 300-acre parcel of town conservation land, a place where wildlife abounds and residents like to explore on the weekends.

Environmental sentiments run deep in Stow, residents say, and many don't like the idea of a private company using their scenic, deed-restricted land for its own purposes, albeit it for safety reasons, said Patricia Perry, Stow's conservation administrator.

"Some people do not want to see conservation land used for a private profiteering company," said Perry, summarizing the concerns of residents who have written letters to her office.

Carole Makary, a former selectwoman and a neighbor to Marble Hill, said she wasn't sure if she would be able to see the red lights from her home nearby on Taylor Road. But Makary said she was less concerned about the esthetic blight caused by the lights than the legal precedent they might set for the town. The Conservation Commission, which oversees the management of the conservation land, needs to sanction the lights before they can be installed.

"It's a terrible precedent to use town-owned land for the benefit of a private company," she said. "It could lead to a whole set of other requests."

James Peters, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said Minute Man Air Field needs the obstruction lights installed on Marble Hill in order to receive $150,000 annually in federal funding. The airport also has to clear trees from the ends of its runway in order to receive the funding, which can be used by the airport to make infrastructure upgrades to the private air strip.

In addition to the approval of the Conservation Commission, the airport will also have to get permission from the state Legislature and the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office, a state environmental agency, said Perry.

David Coppes, vice chairman of Stow's Conservation Commission, said McPherson hasn't submitted a formal proposal on the obstruction lights, but the commission met informally with the airport owner on the issue this summer. Though still in the process of gathering information about the proposal, he said, members of the commission are a bit uncomfortable with the concept of putting a tower and lights on one of the town's prized conservation parcels.

Still, the commission will need more information, he said, before it makes a decision.

"There were a number of questions raised by the Conservation Commission about the appropriateness of using conservation land for that use," said Coppes. "But I don't think anyone's made up their minds yet for or against."

McPherson argues, however, that the situation with Marble Hill is a safety hazard and characterized the obstruction lights as a "public safety project," not as a profit-oriented venture, as Makary and others contend. Federal aviation authorities have determined that the hill poses a danger for pilots flying at night, he said.

"Now that we know that hill is a problem, we're doing something to mitigate it," he said.

Also, McPherson said, he hired a helicopter to take photos from above the proposed location to determine whether any residents would be able to see the 100-foot-tall pole. The closest home was about three-quarters of a mile away, he said, and based on the study, he believes no residents would be able to see the pole from their properties.

Though less than 1 percent of the airport's total traffic is at night, and though the airport discourages night operations, McPherson said, he was not willing to close the airport at night to avoid the installation of the obstruction lights.

"Preventing operations at night would make as much sense as closing roads at night," he said. "And I haven't found too many people who think that's a good idea."