Heliport landing site closes on Atlantic Ave.
City seeking to relocate heliport to Oceanport or on hospital roof
BY CHRISTINE VARNO Staff Writer

LONG BRANCH - The heliport landing site on Atlantic Avenue has been shut down, city officials announced last week.

The city is actively seeking another location where helicopters can land for emergency uses to transport patients to and from Monmouth Medical Center on Second Avenue.

Locations being looked at include the parking lot of the Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport, a site in West Long Branch and possibly the roof of the hospital, according to City Business Administrator Howard H. Woolley.

"We are no longer permitted to operate on Atlantic Avenue, so that is out," said Woolley at the Jan 8 workshop meeting. "It was usually used for children going to the children's hospital in Philadelphia and usually used about three to four times a month."

The council had pulled resolution 305- 07 from the Nov. 27 municipal meeting, which called for obtaining a permanent license to continue to operate an emergency heliport from the Atlantic Avenue site.

The measure was tabled to allow for further discussions and studies about the landing site.

"[Operations at the Atlantic Avenue site] have ceased," City Attorney James Aaron said. "Now we are trying to be a good neighbor to the hospital.

"That is why we are working on [finding another location]," he added.

The city reached out to West Long Branch to see if they could use its heliport landing site for emergency uses related to the hospital.

"The West Long Branch site is equipped," Aaron said.

"The question is adding flights there when they had to reduce flights" after neighbors in the area voiced concerns about noise generated from the site,Aaron said.

Another potential site is the parking lot at the Monmouth Park Racetrack, located west of the Jockey Club Estates on Oceanport Avenue.

Woolley explained that the distance from the Atlantic Avenue site to the hospital is approximately the same distance as the landing site at the racetrack is from the hospital.

The hospital is also conducting an analysis to see if it could use its roof as a landing site for the hospital, Woolley explained.

"There is discussions between the hospital and us and Oceanport and us, and we will bring [the residents] up to date when there is something permanent," Councilman David Brown said at the meeting.

"We appreciate the concerns of the entire community," he added.

The city had been using the Atlantic Avenue site as a medical-emergency-useonly heliport landing area.

The city's temporary license for operations at the site expired almost nine months ago, according to Long Branch Code Enforcement Officer Kevin Hayes.

The new heliport landing site will continue to be used for emergency-use only, according to Woolley.

"Occasionally, there is a child that is in a serious medical condition," Woolley said at the meeting. "Generally, it is people in a serious situation from here going out."

Until a new site is designated for the landing area, Woolley said the city will find a landing site for the heliport on a case-by-case basis.

"If it is a life-and-death situation, we will find somewhere," he said.