Trentonian Article

Noise study makes noise at QW city council
Posted By Ersnt Kuglin and Barry Ellsworth – QMI Agency

Sound levels exploded when Mayor John Williams lost his temper, verbally attacking a constituent in a loud voice and slammed his open palm on the table during a meeting called to discuss a study about noise emenating from CB Freezers.

The normally affable Williams became incensed after goading Cliff White, a neighbour who lives just east of the Hwy. 33 plant, into admitting that after three years of battling to have the excessive noise levels controlled by the city, he no longer believed the mayor and city hall.

"You don't trust us?" Williams said in a loud voice, and he threatened to end the meeting, attended by about 30 people last week at city hall.

White, saying he was a taxpayer who deserved better treatment, stormed out of the room.

It was an explosive conclusion to the hour-long meeting, which broke up a few minutes after White's departure, with the promise that neighbours and CB Freezer management would meet in a few weeks time to further discuss the findings of the $18,000 noise study.

The meeting was not publicized by the city. In fact, it was White that notified The Trentonian the meeting was taking place at city hall.

"We didn't invite the world,'' said Williams in another exchange with White.

Williams has admitted to becoming "frustrated" in his bid to appease neighbours angry over the noise from a cooling tower and reefers running in transports to keep meat frozen at CB Freezers, located in the old FBI plant just west of the city limits in Murray ward, while trying to placate company management which is in the throes of expansion and has about 140 employees.

Neighours have complained bitterly that the mayor and city hall are putting jobs ahead of the quality of life for area residents, some of whom have put blankets over their windows to try to deaden the sound.

And the eight-page noise study, completed by J.E. Coulter Associates Ltd. of Toronto, proved the neighbours right — the sound is at times 60-to-80 per cent over the acceptable level of noise.

Coulter likened the sound, when it is at its peak from reefers, the loading dock and the cooling tower, to that of a Hercules aircraft flying over your house. But while the airplane noise lasts for a short time, the CB Freezer clamour can last hours.

"It's not gutwrenching (noise)," Coulter told the roomful of neighours, plant management owner Dale Willard and others, "(but) we found more noise than there should be."

The study contained three recommendations to bring the noise under regulation levels established by the Ministry of the Environment, including installation of silencers on the cooling tower, changing the parked and loaded trucks to face north, and perhaps build a noise barrier seven metres high (22 feet) high along the front property line of the plant. The last recommendation, Coulter conceded, would have to be more fully investigated because it could cause traffic problems for trucks entering and leaving the property on Highway 33.

Willard, who has built the company from two employees to a $70-million operation buying and selling meat on a global scale, said he was willing to be a "good corporate neighbour" and would take measures to control the noise.

"I think maybe there are some things we can do," he said. "We are not here to piss people off."

But the neighbours wonder why, then, have their complaints fallen on deaf ears for so long -- three families have sold their homes and moved after having their peace of mind, to say nothing of sleep, disrupted for years.

It appears the Ministry of the Environment will be called in since the noise levels are higher than the ministry's guidelines.

Williams said he was determined to fix the problem to the satisfaction of neighbours and the company.

On Monday, city CAO Gary Dyke, said the next step is to put a plan together in order to implement recommendations in the study.

"The process has already started,'' said Dyke.

But it's not known how much the noise abatement measures will cost CB Freezers. There's also growing speculation the city may share in the cost.

Mayor John Williams could not be reached for comment.