Letters

It’s coming! Like a tsunami, a relentless force, you expect it, hope you’re wrong, and then try and cope.

What? The noise. The pollution. The gas-powered leaf blowers begin now. Not a leaf has fallen — not one — but the blowers blow whatever their handlers point at.

Today, it’s grass clippings and dust — it’s been so dry. The men — it’s usually men — wear no protective ear gear, even though the noise is so deafening and invasive that I, who sit on my porch 150 feet away, cannot talk on the telephone.

The swirls of dust raise all sorts of hell: allergens, like leaf mold and spores, and … oh, wait … a discarded face mask swirls up in the mix. COVID-19 is still lurking, as we’ve been told. We know that the virus is transmitted through air droplets, and these super-powered, super-charged machines are certainly stirring things up from the ground to the air.

I applaud the Town of Southampton, which has decided to use electric leaf blowers and non-invasive methods in the East Quogue park to clean up whatever nature has decided to drop on us. I think neighbors and landscapers can do the same.

I urge anyone who sees their neighbor using a gas leaf blower to ask them to cease and desist. Other options: electric leaf blowers, and, better yet, the good, old-fashioned rake. And if you hire a landscaper, tell them that you do not want these noisy, polluting dinosaurs to be used on your property. Your ears, your lungs and Mother Nature will all thank you.

And perhaps the virus may pass you by as well.

Anna Klebnikov Brinsmade

East Quogue and Sagaponack