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RON MATUSRunway construction at Tampa International puts more planes over homes in Beach Park - for now.
Every day now, jumbo jets scream overhead.
They whine and whistle. They rumble and roar. Some even rattle windows.
Many Beach Park residents just shrug.
"I'm not saying I like it," said Jane Anne Hershock. "It's just the way it is."
Thanks to construction on one of the runways at Tampa International Airport, Beach Park residents have endured repeated spasms of rolling thunder since May 19.
Up to 350 big planes every day have been rerouted while a contractor makes $9-million worth of improvements to the westernmost runway, the one closest to Old Tampa Bay. Until July 11, most of them will use the east runway, which means they'll slide over portions of Beach Park when they take off.
Residents here have always lived with some plane noise. A mile south of the airport, it comes with the territory. People on the very western tip of Beach Park, on Mariner Estates, are even getting help from the airport to soundproof their homes.
But now, more than just the western tip is getting a dose of extra decibels.
And at times, the jets screech past every three to four minutes.
Outside, residents halt conversations until planes pass. Inside, they turn up TV sets.
"It's to the point that you have to rewind the movie," said Hershock, who was walking her sons on The Riviera Street last week. Sometimes, it seems, "they practically land on your roof."
But while some grumble, few complain. At least not officially.
"Grin and bear it," said Frank Diaz, who was toting garbage cans to the curb as one plane and then another buzzed overhead.
"I think people understand it's something that needs to be done," said Emmy Purcell Reynolds, president of the Beach Park Homeowners Association.
Reynolds said she has received no complaints. Airport officials have gotten a couple.
Frank Edwards said he knew when he bought his Beach Park home that there would be times when the runway needed repairs and planes would be rerouted.
"Only one has been extremely loud," he said of recent fly-bys. "It had a bit of a scream to it."
Walter Hunter said it's the landings that torment him, not the take-offs.
Wind direction sometimes forces the airport to bring planes in from the south. And now that the planes are using the east runway, they're "dropping, dropping, dropping" right over Hunter's house on Cleveland Street.
His question: Why can't the airport use the east-west runway?
"I've seen that runway," he said. "I've landed on that runway. In a Delta 747."
But big planes don't land there often, said Ken Reed, the airport's noise director.
It's shorter than the other two. Prevailing north-south winds make takeoffs more dangerous. And more neighborhoods would be impacted if it was widely used, Reed said.
At least the extra planes weren't a surprise.
Many Beach Park residents, in fact, thank the airport for giving advance notice.
In early May, the airport sent a heads-up letter to 51,000 addresses in six ZIP codes near the airport, said spokeswoman Brenda Geoghagan.
In the long run, the improvements will allow more big planes to skirt away from Beach Park, she said.
"For the little bit of pain right now," Geoghagan said, "the reward will be good."
- Ron Matus can be reached at 226-3405 or matus@sptimes.com