Jefferson Township residents express frustration with landscaping noise
JEFFERSON TWP — The monthly supervisors meeting on Monday night, Feb. 12, drew a larger crowd than usual, as entire families crowded the municipal building to air grievances about noise and other issues they say are being generated by Wain Landscaping.
Sheena Phillips and John Moore, who both live on Bullcreek Road, complained the landscaping company has made no effort to be a good neighbor, accusing the company of making excessive noise 24 hours a day as well as dumping trash all over the neighborhood.
“We deal with them on a daily basis. It's not occasional; it's everyday humming. It's constant,” said Phillips, whose children were with her at the meeting. “His employees will come in at quitting time and crank up the music. And then over the music, they’re shouting and they have vulgar language, so I don't even feel safe to let my kids kind of just roam in the woods anymore.”
Moore said he and other neighbors have found it difficult, if not outright impossible, to sleep at night since Wain set up shop nearby.
“We've lost entire nights of sleep, getting ready for work in the morning without having slept since 1 a.m.,” Moore said. “Our homes have been there since the ’60s and the ’70s, and that business was not behind us until very recently.”
Phillips said one of her children has been diagnosed with enlarged vestibular aqueducts, an ear disorder that can cause progressive hearing loss. She blames this on the noise from Wain’s operations.
“I've spoken to her audiologist, and she said if it's a certain decibel level for a certain length of time, that can be the reason why she loses more hearing,” Phillips said. “We all want our homes to be safe for our children. That's our No. 1 priority.”
Moore said he previously appealed to both the township and the police for help, only to come up empty both times.
“When we asked the township what to do, we were told to call the police,” Moore said. “When we called the police, we were told to call the township.”
According to Butler County property records, Wain Landscaping has been located at 685 Bullcreek Road since June 2015, when Phillip H. Wain purchased the 5.37-acre plot of land from Irma Mae Shearer for $65,000.
Reached for comment Tuesday, Wain said he has done all he can to be considerate to the neighbors living near his business. He said the plowing service his company offers only generates early-morning noise at his building when it snows, and even in those situations, the company makes accommodations including turning off some equipment.
“Part of that is we have to load salt at 2 or 3 in the morning. That's what they're complaining about is the salt loading,” he said. “We do snow emergency work; a lot of people depend on us. We have eight trucks that go out and plow.”
Wain also said he has told his employees to quit playing loud music early in the morning.
“We squashed that right away,” Wain said. “We said, ‘you can’t pull into the parking area at 7:30 a.m. playing your loud music.’ So we put an end to that.”
When Moore brought up the fact that the township does not have a zoning ordinance on its books — which may have prevented this from occurring — longtime supervisor John Cypher mentioned the township tried to implement such an ordinance decades ago, only to receive blowback from residents.
“No one was for the zoning when it was proposed 30 years ago,” Cypher said. “I tried to fight that battle and it didn’t work. This is a product of that; otherwise we wouldn't be here discussing this today.”
Moore and other residents noted Jefferson Township already had ordinances on its books related to curbing excessive noise from animals. This language is located in Chapter 2, Part 2 of the municipal code. Moore asked why the township couldn’t curb noise from businesses if it recognized the need to curb noise from animals.
“I understand that Wain Landscaping does not have dogs that are keeping us up at night. But what they do have are generators, excavators, machines filling trucks with salt, men shouting over each other,” Moore said. “Our neighbors could have a dog kennel and it wouldn’t be as bad as it is now,” Moore said.
Wain said he “did everything by the book” when he moved his company to Jefferson Township.
“We've done things right; we've filed everything properly,” Wain said. “I try to be as nice as possible. There is just nothing I can do.”
Another resident, Bob Veselich encouraged residents to take legal action against Wain if the nuisance crossed certain lines, noting Phillips’ complaint about her daughter’s hearing loss.
“I would talk to an attorney,” Veselich said. “Get your doctor's documentation, then you could possibly get them to send a letter to Mr. Wain and say, ‘Hey, listen, these are the possible ramifications.’”
However, both Phillips and Moore insisted they were not seeking to harm anyone and wanted a peaceful resolution to this conflict.
“It was hard enough for us to come to a township meeting,” Moore said. “We really like to be good neighbors. We don't want to have to take anybody to court.”
Eagle staff writer Eddie Trizzino contributed to this report.
This story was updated Feb. 15, 2024, to reflect that a quote advising residents to seek legal remedies over noise from a landscaping company was said by township resident Bob Veselich. A previous version of this story incorrectly attributed the quote to Supervisor John Cypher.
