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Jack
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
New England calm
Raking in the noisemakers
Some towns seek to ban gas-powered leaf blowers
 Landscaper Ian Cura used a leaf blower for a job in Newton on Friday. An alderman wants to outlaw gas-powered blowers. (Pat Greenhouse/ Globe Staff) |
NEWTON - Elm and maple trees rustled in the breeze on Highland Avenue in West Newton one afternoon last week. Spacious homes cast long shadows across carefully manicured lawns. Gardens brimmed with freshly planted asters.
And the shrill whine of leaf blowers filled the air.
"I hate them," said Lynne Bail, shouting over the noise made by a crew cleaning her neighbor's yard.
"They go all day long," she said. "It really spoils the neighborhood and the peace and quiet we used to have."
It is a quintessential suburban problem. In the quest for a flawless yard, leaf blowers have become a modern necessity to get a job done efficiently. But with more homeowners and landscapers using them from spring to fall, critics say they have become an ear-shattering nuisance, robbing neighborhoods of cherished quiet. Now, a Newton alderman wants to outlaw gas-powered leaf blowers, joining Cambridge, Lincoln, and other communities around Boston that are considering leaf blower restrictions.
Under the law, it would be "unlawful for any person, including a City employee, to operate any portable gasoline-powered leaf blower within the City limits." The ban would take effect in January 2009. Excluded are electric leaf blowers, which have less power than gas leaf blowers and run more quietly.
Police would be responsible for enforcing the proposed ordinance. Officers could issue warnings and fines of up to $300 to violators.
Around the United States, other cities, including Los Angeles; Aspen, Colo.; and Palo Alto, Calif., have enacted or considered restrictions on gas-powered blowers in the 1990s and more recently despite the objections of landscapers who say it increases costs for their customers.
Newton Alderman Ted Hess-Mahan said he proposed the ban after hearing complaints from residents annoyed by the noise, dust, and exhaust created by the blowers. He also drew from personal experience. Neighbors on three sides of his West Newton home use landscapers to clean and maintain their yards. A lawyer who occasionally works from home, he said the coming and going of landscaping crews using leaf blowers seems to leave a constant cloud of dust, which aggravates his wife's asthma and covers their house and car. He said the air turns blue from exhaust when multiple leaf blowers are running.
"The exhaust is just tremendous," he said. "One constituent said his smoke alarm goes off, it's that thick."
How does he maintain his own yard?
"I have children," he said.
Two Lincoln residents started Citizens for a Cleaner, Better Lincoln, collecting names of people who want the noise to stop. They post information about leaf blowers on the Web and track cities that ban or restrict them.
Cambridge officials have been considering a plan that would allow the use of gas-powered leaf blowers from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday to Friday, and 8 to 5 Saturday, Sunday, and holidays. A Leaf Blowers Advisory Committee made up of residents, industry specialists, representatives from the MIT and Harvard facilities departments, and public officials came up with the plan. The city's License Commission would also have to test and certify each leaf blower.
Jo Solet, a Harvard Medical School professor who led an effort to ban leaf blowers outright, said the ordinance also requires that leaf blowers operate at 65 decibels or less, as recommended by the American National Standards Institute. She said she worries that the blowers send dust from lead paint and lawn pesticides into the air. Others share her concern.
"I have seen people run from the Cambridge Common tot lot because here come the blowers," she said. "Mothers literally pick up their babies and run."
US companies made or imported nearly 3 million leaf blowers in 2006, according to industry estimates. Chuck Fucci, a salesman at Cleaves Co. in Needham, said he sells as many as 50 leaf blowers a week. Most of the sales are to landscapers.
He said he does not understand what the fuss is about when it comes to leaf blowers. Most of the models he sells run at 74 to 78 decibels, which is slightly louder than a vacuum cleaner, he said.
"It's not really all that loud," he said. "Maybe at 7 on a Sunday morning it seems real loud, but most of the time they're working when people are at work."
The Newton board of aldermen will hold a public meeting on the proposed ordinance at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at Newton City Hall.
But the proposal is already drawing criticism.
Richard Simonelli, a landscaper in Newton, said customers will pay a lot more if workers have to use rakes instead of leaf blowers.
"This law is going to end up going down in flames," Simonelli said. "When Mrs. Smith's bill goes up to 1,000 or 1,200 bucks, you're going to have a lot of real unhappy people calling City Hall."
Joe Lamacchia, owner of Lamacchia Landscaping, said he cannot imagine what he would have to charge some Newton residents who already pay as much as $3,000 a month for lawn care if the ban is enacted.
"These are busy people . . . corporate rollers, doctors, lawyers, hedge fund people," he said. "I don't see how they're going to clean up for themselves."
Not everyone on Highland Avenue is aggravated by the leaf blowers. Leslie Shapiro said she does not support a ban, saying neighbors should talk with one another to resolve such issues.
"It doesn't bother me," she said, adding that she works most days.
"Many of the people in this neighborhood are not home during the day," she said.
Bail, who lives a few houses away, said she has not discussed the issue with her neighbors. But recently she did get mad enough that she bought her own electric blower. When workers blow dust and debris into her yard, she heads out and blows it back.
Megan Woolhouse can be reached at mwoolhouse@globe.com.
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