WEST SENECA
West Seneca residents complain about noise at blacktop plant
Residents pleaded with the West Seneca Town Board on Monday night to do something about the rumblings of a blacktop processing plant they say has been making it difficult to sleep at night.
Mike Shareno, who lives on Almont Avenue, said his house is the one closest to the plant, which is at 1655 Union Road.
“There’s no way this thing passes a noise ordinance,” he told the board. “I lost the better part of a month’s sleep with what’s going on over there.”
Shareno and other residents said they hear trucks pulling up, unloading and slamming their tailgates in the middle of the night. And, they said, what’s worse is that they hear what some people described as a pounding or rumbling throughout the night.
“There are tens of thousands of tons of product unloaded, principally at night—all night long, until 5 in the morning,” Shareno said. “The tailgates slam, ‘ba-boom.’ The plant, whatever it does out there, runs all night. This is obscene.”
Neighbors on Fremont, Almont, Warren and Summit avenues presented the board with about 80 signatures on a petition demanding that the plant be shut down until it adheres to zoning requirements. William Czuprynski, the code enforcement officer, said the plant has the required special-use permit and has not violated any town laws.
Police Chief Edward F. Gehen Jr. asked residents to call police if they thought the plant was violating the town’s noise ordinance, which takes effect at 11 p. m.
The plant, which Gernatt Asphalt leases, has been operating for a few weeks this fall. The plant’s nighttime activity is tied to Union Concrete, a highway contracting company owned by Bob Hill.
Union Concrete is halfway through work on a contract to repave the I-90 from the Lackawanna Toll Barrier to Route 400, he said.
His contract with the Thruway dictates that the work be done at night, to minimize traffic 2 inches of blacktop, then deliver the milling back to the Union Road plant, where it is stockpiled until it is processed and recycled.
He described the noise from the plant differently than the neighbors did.
“It’s not a rumble. It’s a hum,” Hill said. “It’s the fans on the blacktop plant that take the dust out.”
He said his company and the blacktop plant are not violating any laws. Nighttime work has stopped for the season, he said, because it’s too cold for paving, but work will resume in the spring.
In other business at Monday’s board meeting:
• The board voted unanimously to rename Briarwood Park as Children’s Memorial Park, to honor children in the town who have died, and to give their families a place to commemorate them.
• At the urging of Kelly Kline, whose son A. J. Larson died in a car accident linked to texting, the board agreed to consider adopting a local law that would carry a fine of $300 for texting while driving. A public hearing on the proposed law will be held Nov. 16.
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