Last week, the Sewall's Point Town Commission voted to ask the county to study the possibility of moving the county-owned airport. This week, an advisory committee that commissioners appointed to study airport noise ignored the commission's orders to wrap up its work immediately and decided to meet again.

Sewall's Point's request that the county consider a study of whether to move the airport is significant because a municipality has joined the hundreds of individuals who have asked for a study. The commission has refused to look into moving the airport, instead choosing to resolve noise complaints at the existing location.

The advisory group's little rebellion against the politicians who created it shows at least that the group is determined to prepare a credible report on noise. The study, sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration, is supposed to include recommendations for reducing noise at the general aviation airport.

Since consultants now predict that jet activity will increase 66 percent at Witham over the next five years, the committee needs a long list of noise abatement suggestions. They include buying homes, at a cost of $26 million, or soundproofing homes in the noisiest areas, estimated at $4.5 million. The group also may consider requiring real-estate agents to tell potential home buyers about noise or restricting noisy "touch-and-go" landings.

Sewall's Point officials, like the citizens asking the county to study whether the airport can be moved, did not take a position saying it should be moved. The town commission asks only that the county, which controls the airport, take an objective look at the possibility of moving it. "A significant portion of our town is affected by the flights," Sewall's Point Commissioner Marc Teplitz said. "We're saying we support a study to determine if this is at all feasible." He is correct.

Unfortunately, the five members of the county commission consistently have refused to listen to residents' requests, apparently hoping that opposition will stop if they push ahead with noise abatement. But the problems of airport growth and noise won't go away, and the opposition won't disappear, either. Commissioners could -- and should -- proceed both with quieting airport noise and studying whether to move the airport.