Airport, cities tell residents: Apply quickly for your anti-noise upgrade

Officials from Richfield and Minneapolis, along with the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC), are urging homeowners who qualify to get ready to apply for new air conditioning, windows, doors and insulation to block jet noise from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

With thousands of homes eligible, officials say it's important for homeowners who receive letters saying they're eligible to decide what they want to do so construction can move along.

"This is ambitious and aggressive. ... We're bringing in 100 people a month," said John Nelson of MAC.

Homeowners in mitigation areas will get letters if they qualify for the program. Those letters will go out between now and June 2012. Homeowners are then invited to a workshop explaining the program.

The new noise mitigation project for homes near flight paths around the airport began last year after settlement of a lawsuit brought by the cities of Minneapolis, Richfield and Eagan. Some houses in Bloomington also qualify for the program, which has several phases and will wrap up construction in homes by the end of 2012.

The first mitigation phase, involving 454 homes in Bloomington, Richfield and Minneapolis, began last year and is 75 percent complete. The last eligible homeowners in those areas will be notified by letter in March.

Today, the second and biggest part of the program begins, eventually involving up to 5,350 homes in Bloomington, Eagan, Richfield and Minneapolis. Residents in those homes could receive central air conditioning (which in houses with boilers could cost up to $18,000) and up to $4,000 in new doors, windows and attic and sidewall insulation. If homeowners already have air conditioning or don't want air conditioning, they could get up to $14,000 in improvements. Letters to those homeowners are going out between now and June 2012.

To get work on qualifying homes done in a timely fashion, officials are hoping that people use the two to three weeks between receiving their notification letter and their scheduled workshop to visit the Center for Energy and Environment in Richfield and talk to experts about their remodeling options. The center, at 6517 Nicollet Av. S., displays windows, doors, air conditioners, insulation, roof venting and other materials that are installed by contractors who do work under the MAC program.

At the center, residents can price out materials, see what their window, door and air conditioning choices look like and talk to specialists about mitigation choices. The goal is to have homeowners then schedule a visit with a design specialist in their home within two weeks of attending a workshop.

"Seeing things will help people make decisions quicker," said Bob Kepple, senior project coordinator for the noise mitigation program. "It really hurts us if there are significant delays."

Now, air conditioning and insulation are being installed with about 30 days' notice to homeowners who have already been notified that they qualify and who have attended a workshop. The project has a 90-day lead time on window installation.

Maps of mitigation areas and more information are available on the website at macnoise.com/. To schedule a time to talk to someone at the Center for Energy and Environment, call 612-861-9013. The center's website is at www.mncee.org .