On Sag Harbor's Weekend Noise Nuisance

The Sag Harbor Village Board took a break from proposed code revisions Tuesday night and instead discussed snow clearing and a law that would set appropriate times for leaf blowers and construction work.

The board proposed limiting the commercial use of leaf blowers and construction activity to between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. On Saturdays, construction would be allowed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nothing would be allowed on public holidays. As it now stands, all such activity is allowed seven days a week between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.

The proposal is intended, Mayor Sandra Schroeder said yesterday, to limit landscapers and builders but allow homeowners to get their chores done.

It was met with some confusion. Jennifer Hauser, who had complained to the board in December about roof work and leaf blowing being done at a neighbor’s house on Thanksgiving, thanked the board for looking at the noise ordinance, but asked that members take more time over it, as she didn’t see much difference. She also asked that the times be further restricted. “I wish there were no people working on their lawns or construction on Saturday or Sunday,” she said.

The proposal does not specifically say that commercial leaf blowers or construction would be banned on Sundays, or that residential use would be allowed. Ken O’Donnell, a village board member, agreed there was a bit of a gray area, but said the village needed to let residents work on their properties on weekends, even though “it definitely seems to be a village where a lot of professional landscapers are doing the work.”

While the board agreed to table the proposal and re-evaluate, Ed Deyermond, another board member, said, “I can’t see supporting the prohibition on Saturdays. It’s too much.”

“I do agree we should have Sundays off,” Mayor Schroeder said yesterday. She is going to re-examine the proposal with legal counsel and bring it back to the board next month.

Mia Grosjean, a Henry Street resident, asked that the board remember that weekends are a chance for a respite, despite Sag Harbor having become a resort community. “It would just be great to say, ‘Ah, we don’t have all of this going on around us over the weekends.’ ”

Carol Olejnik, who lives on Main Street, introduced the discussion about the snow. Second-home owners, she said, manage to have their lawns cut every weekend, but their sidewalks are packed with snow. “I cannot walk all the way to the corner. I cannot walk to the pond because they can’t shovel the walk. My dog has to go out,” she said. “I’m 73 years old; I’m out there shoveling. I don’t understand why they can’t do it.”

Mayor Schroeder said this winter had been better than last when it came to compliance with a village law that makes it the responsibility of property owners to clear snow and ice from the sidewalks in front of their buildings. Snow and ice cannot impede traffic for longer than 24 hours after snowfall has stopped. The village took out an ad in The Sag Harbor Express again this year to make the point, she said. Enforcement has ramped up, too. Violators can be fined up to $250 or jailed for up to 15 days.

Still, “We can’t go door to door and drag people out and hand them a shovel,” the mayor told Ms. Olejnik.

Margaret Bromberg gave what has become her annual February report on the snow-covered sidewalks on her Hampton Street block. Concerned that students would be unable to walk up the block to the school, she reached out to each of her neighbors on the street to let them know of the law. They all got together and got the entire street shoveled.

She is still hopeful that the village will accept more responsibility in clearing the snow. “I’m hoping to age in place,” she said, pointing out that Sag Harbor is a walkable village most of the year. “This year’s better, I agree with the mayor . . . I think we have to keep talking about it.”

Ms. Bromberg also raised some issues with village snowplows leaving snow piled in crosswalks.