Angry residents from the Riverhaven mobile home park and homes on nearby streets gave the Riverhead Planning Board an earful Thursday night, when the site plan of Gershow Recycling on Hubbard Avenue was the subject of a public hearing.
Noise emanating from the Gershow site was the principal complaint of all who spoke, followed by vibrations resulting from operations at the facility. The operation has destroyed their quality of life along with the value of their homes, residents told the board.
Medford-based Gershow Recycling purchased the former Gallo junkyard in 2012 and has enjoyed the prior owner’s status as a pre-existing nonconforming use— one that predated and doesn’t comply with current zoning, but is “grandfathered” in and can continue as is. But that’s the heart of the problem, according to neighbors.
Gallo bought junked cars and dismantled them for parts, Riverhaven resident Richard Luzzi said, while Gershow buys scrap metal and sells it to a metal manufacturing company.
“Gallo was nothing like this. There was very little noise,” Joy Doyle, who lives on Tyte Drive, said.
Residents complained that they cannot open the windows in their homes, or use their backyards, because of the loud noise produced by machinery and equipment used at the site to move and crush scrap metals, and load it into containers for shipment.
“It has been a horror show for the residents of Riverhaven,” Luzzi said. The noise ranges from “extreme loud noise to sonic boom,” Luzzi said.
“Some days I want to pull my hair out,” said Barbara Whittle, who said she lived on the Riverhaven block farthest away from Gershow and the noise was still unbearable. “I wasn’t planning to spend my retirement locked up in a house.”
Tyte Drive resident Patrick Purcell invited the board to visit his house early on a Saturday morning. “At seven in the morning, my windows shake.”
“How would you people feel about having your family over for a barbecue and all you hear is ‘ba-da-boom, ba-da-boom’ all day?” Virginia Lang asked board members. “Have a little compassion for seniors.”
“Do something,” Matt Donohue, who lives in Riverhaven, implored the board. “Show us you’re not throwing us to the wolves. I feel like a third-rate citizen,” he said.
Luzzi added that he’s concerned about environmental hazards at the site, citing piles of metals that have anti-freeze, gasoline, oil and other flammables in the heap. He said he’s worried about a lightning strike causing a fire or explosion.
Gershow Recycling was not required to follow the full site plan review procedure when it bought the Gallo property because of its representation that changes planned for the site would be “de minimis,” making the site plan eligible for expedited approval. But the company made changes to the site that were not reflected on the original plan approved by planners on a de minimis basis. The amended site plan that was the subject of Thursday’s hearing reflects those changes and additions, including a loading ramp, steps, a 12-foot fence and stacked metal containers placed to form a noise barrier, according to Gershow attorney Peter Danowski.
“It’s the same use it’s always been,” Danowski said, to jeers from the crowd.
The hearing record was left open until April 15 for written comment.
Yesterday, Riverhaven residents Marie and Harry Gerdes said they have had their home on the market for more than a year and have not had any serious interest. Their backyard deck now looks at Gershow’s fence and the storage containers stacked alongside it.
“They see Gershow and leave,” Marie Gerdes said. “Who would buy a house next to that?” The Gerdess, originally from Patchogue, bought their home 10 years ago, upon moving back to Long Island from South Carolina, “to be near the grandkids.”
“When we saw the Gershow sign go up, we got sick,” Marie Gerdes said. “We’re familiar with their Medford operation.”
“Gallo’s was nothing like this,” Harry Gerdes said. “They sold use car parts. He is dismantling and crushing for scrap.”
“They have a tall boom that picks up stacks of metal and dumps it from high up in the air into a container, and the noise is just horrendous,” Marie Gerdes said.
“I’d just like to know who in the town let them do this and why.”
Peter Blasl contributed reporting for this story.
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