1 Photo
A worker uses a leaf blower to clear debris. EXPRESS FILE
More than half of those surveyed by the Quieter Quogue Initiative are annoyed by the din of gas-powered leaf blowers.
But while 57 percent were bothered by the buzzing, fewer survey respondents — 49 percent — favored a ban of the equipment.
In February, a group of Quogue Village residents who were sick of the unrelenting racket launched a survey asking neighbors their views on the notion of enacting a leaf blower ban. Group members worked together to come up with the survey’s questions, and Linda Barnett volunteered to create the survey on a platform to send out to the whole community.
“We worked as a team figuring out what questions we wanted to ask, and I just worked on the back end of it with a little help from my millennial children,” she said.
Over 2,400 surveys were sent, the group reported. Quieter Quogue co-founder Sally Beatty used the Freedom of Information Law to request a mailing list from the village, and, said Ms. Barnett, some people who weren’t on the list also asked to receive the survey.
Approximately 70 percent of recipients opened the email, and 44 percent of them completed it. There was a 31 percent overall response, just above the 30 percent average for email surveys.
By survey standards, that’s a pretty good response, Ms. Barnett concluded.
Of those who completed the survey, 45 percent provided comments. “The comment section was helpful, just to give people an opportunity to voice their views which were interesting,” she said. “It’s an issue that has several different angles.”
Sixty-six percent of respondents said gas-powered leaf blowers were used on their properties. Just 6 percent reported using electric machines, with 28 percent saying they were uncertain.
While 57 percent spoke of being bothered by the noise, 11 percent had no preference, and 32 percent said they were not at all annoyed.
Asked if they favored a restriction or ban of the use of gas-powered blowers, 49 percent of respondents said they were in favor, while 36 percent said they were not really or not at all in favor. The majority of residents who offered additional comments on that question said they preferred a restriction rather than a ban.
Forty-eight percent of respondents were extremely or somewhat concerned about potential detrimental health effects of gas-powered leaf blowers, 38 percent were not, and 14 percent were neutral.
Forty-one percent of the survey respondents are full-time, year-round residents. Seven percent live in Quogue only during the summer, and 62 percent live in Quogue during the summer but also come out on the weekends throughout the year.
With the survey responses tabulated, Sally Beatty, one of the founders of the group, said the next step involves speaking with local landscapers.
“We’re in listening mode,” she explained. “We want to be very careful we listen to the community. We care about our landscapers a lot, and we care about our neighbors. We want to make sure we get it right.”
The group is continuing to gather feedback from the community. “People are very interested in this,” Ms. Beatty said. Quieter Quogue is also monitoring developments in neighboring towns and working to put recommendations together, she said.
“We did the best we could in terms of trying to evaluate how people really felt about this and we’re continuing to do that,” Ms. Barnett said. “We want to make sure we have as much input as we can.”
Other municipalities on Long Island have ratified similar proscriptions.
On Thursday, March 25, the East Hampton Town Board voted to restrict gas-powered blowers, prohibiting their use from May to September and regulating them for the rest of the year. On weekdays, gas-powered leaf blowers may be used from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. On Saturdays, they may be used from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Sundays, they may be operated between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., but only by a homeowner or tenant.
East Hampton Village enacted its own blower rules last year, and Southampton Village put measures in place the year before that.
In Sag Harbor Village, a new law adopted last summer will limit the use of any powered leaf blowers, by residents and commercial landscapers alike, to between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, year-round. Homeowners will be allowed to use blowers on their own properties only between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. There’s a $1,000 penalty for violating the ordinance.
So far, Quogue Village Mayor Peter Sartorius has been reluctant to jump on the ban bandwagon.
“I am aware of the results and have discussed them with the leaders of the committee,” he said when the survey results were released in March. The committee is gathering input from landscapers, he said; in the interim, the mayor wasn’t prepared to weigh in just yet.
