Letter ot the Editor June 27

Try life without gas-powered leaf blowers, Pound Ridge writer asks 

To the Editor:

Picture this. It’s one of those beautiful June mornings here in Pound Ridge, the air is crisp and clear, the sky’s a cool blue, with hardly any clouds, and dense greenery surrounds me. I hear the songs of birds and the voices of children playing somewhere nearby.

It’s quite idyllic, really. But then it happens — the tranquility is shattered by the sounds of gas-powered leaf blowers. Gone is the peace of it all, disturbed by contractors who defy the local law and start up these banned and very noisy tools. The property owners, my neighbors, don’t seem to care enough to ask their contractors to comply with the law, and calls to the police to enforce it are futile. The contractors themselves have complete disregard for it, giving all sorts of explanations for why they won’t comply.

This law was hotly debated, and many people were opposed to it, but a majority were not, so I suspect that I’m not alone in my frustration. Whether or not it’s a good law is not why I’m writing. That debate ended.

Whether or not one’s in the right to break a law they believe is unfair isn’t why I’m writing either. I write because I believe that there are others who share my discontent and that someone ought to express these thoughts publicly.

My plea is very simple. All I ask is for my neighbors, my community, to have enough concern for their neighbors, meaning for all of us, that they’d be willing to make a sacrifice and try out life without gas-powered leaf blowers. After all, for hundreds of years they didn’t exist and yet people managed to maintain their property to their satisfaction. Can we please give it a try? Can we give peace a chance?

Stewart Weiss

Pound Ridge