I applaud the City of Auburn for improving one aspect of quality of life for citizens living in the older neighborhoods by coming up with a solution to noise, traffic and safety issues relating to rail traffic through Auburn, namely the M Street grade separation project. It is unfortunate that some residences will be displaced as a result of right-of-way acquisition required.

May I suggest an additional improvement in our quality of life and safety?

Perhaps it is just me, but I find the frequent and on some days constant helicopter flights made by the helicopter training school that operates from the Auburn Airport to be highly intrusive and annoying, especially while working or relaxing in my back yard on a pleasant day.

It also occurred to me that as these are training flights, that the potential for a crash in this populated area is higher than for non-training flights. I would think that training flights would be restricted to low-populated areas, perhaps over water or forests, which abound in this area.

I called the city to complain about this and was told that this is a matter that the FAA deals with. Calls to the FAA were not returned as expected.

If this training school is a business and it is within Auburn city limits, then a business license is required, and therefore the City should have some limits on this type of operation with regards to safety and noise.

I’m confident that any efforts by the City to address these issues would be appreciated by many.

– William Riedel