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Mark Kachar's E-Mail Opinion on Monroe Michigan Helicopters Regarding the article: Helicopter draws hostility I cannot believe that these residents are complaining. When they moved into the Hollywood Drive area, they had no idea we had a Hospital behind their shrubs ? These Helicopters are needed on many occasions to keep some members of ourt community alive. Lets start thanking our local hospital, and those who risk their lives every day flying in and out of medical centers keeping people alive. If you have ever had a family member near death, I'm sure the last thing on your mind would be the rotor noise ! `from Mark Kachar Copyright 2004 Monroe Publishing Company. All Rights Reserved Dear Mr. Kachar Thanks for your opinion read around the world on the Monroe Evening News Website. Please be aware that neither I nor any fellow residents of Hollywood Drive have expressed any hostility concerning any helicopter usage or rotor noise. How you can make such an inference from the Monroe Evening News article is unclear, but deserves to be a part of the record of Historic Monroe. The helicopter pilots who make the flights into and out of Mercy Memorial Heliport as you say every day are considered to fear for their lives and those on the ground when flying into and out of so poorly designed a heliport. Had Daniel Wakeman’s predecessors had the wisdom and foresight to build the heliport on the hospital roof there would not be a problem for those now fear for their lives and those of us so silly to build or buy a home near a small hospital that has greatly expanded is now landlocked and has a heliport. A heliport on the roof would be in conformity with FAA guidelines and not take up scarce parking spaces on the ground. The University of Michigan and other nearby hospitals have heliports on the roof. I will bring up this suggestion to Mayor Iacoangeli at the next council meeting during citizen’s time. The operation of a non-FAA licensed and regulated heliport did concern me. My questions may have prompted action of the hospital administration's part because the heliport was licensed by the FAA on June 16, 2005 pending the filling out and return of proper forms by the hospital staff. I had stated in a public meeting that the use of helicopter was abused in perhaps four out of five cases. Daniel L. Wakeman, MMHS chief executive officer of the hospital is quoted in the same article as follows: "Though few dispute that the helicopters save lives, a 1994 study of the response times of helicopters and ground ambulances concluded that activation times, response times and on-scene times for helicopter transports were longer, on average, than ground ambulances. The same study also concluded that helicopters were overused in about 85 percent of transports. " Therefore, Mr. Kachar, I will leave it to you to point out to your hospital administrator that he is wrong concerning abuse of the big bird. What started this chain of events was my question to Mayor John Iacoangeli in a public council meeting Monday, March 21, 2005 concerning our loss of tax base to Mercy Memorial Hospital, poor planning on the part of the former hospital administrator and the lack of an FAA approved heliport at the hospital. As follows: Citizen Comments. David Smith, 530 Hollywood, spoke in regard to the hospital’s plans to expand when they choose to not qualify for a legal heliport and asked the City to check into their intentions. He would like to see them move their whole facility onto Stewart Road where it can develop and flourish. Mr. Kachar, I do not see how my comments reflected any hostility whatsoever. The only issue in my question to the Mayor and Council concerned apparent poor planning by the previous administrator and the lack of FAA protection of the airspace needed by helicopter operations. Naturally, I am appreciative of all services of the hospital including air transport if necessary. My life has been saved on two occasions by the emergency room staff and prompt hospitalization for an acute infection. David Alkire Smith NOTICE & DISCLAIMER: This is one of many websites that chronicle the history of Monroe County, Michigan. Like other sites, newspaper accounts and correspondence from readers is invaluable source material to reflect contemporary views on current events. The Monroe Evening News is considered by the web keeper to be an excellent publication achieving good accuracy when reporting issues of community interest. Their policy of permitting readers to write letters to the editor for publication or to have their opinions submitted by E-Mail for publication on the web site is an excellent service to the community. The web keeper cannot insure for liability reasons that the person cited as the writer of letters or E-mails is in fact the author or that they were correctly quoted. To insure historical accuracy, any error shown to be genuine will be correct promptly upon notice to the web keeper. Copyright 2005 All rights reserved
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