To the Editor:

I AM SO SICK OF BEEPING! I live on the block of Walnut Lane between Valley Road and the side street, Oakland. I love the (supposed) lazy days of summer. I love the natural sound of crickets and cicadas and the various birds that come to my feeders. I like fresh air, so my windows are open. We do not have air conditioning, thus my home is not locked up tight as a drum with a constant AC hum, both of which would assist in drowning out sound. (I won’t comment on a country where nearly every home runs ACs that significantly contribute to pollution and global warming … that’s another letter.) No, this letter pertains to noise pollution.

To my left is a construction site — a tear-down, now McMansion. To my right is the work being done on Valley Road. And in front of me, as of Monday, is a new curb and sidewalk. I understand that someone years ago had the bright idea to install back-up beeps to construction and other large vehicles as a safety measure. I understand that outdoor workers prefer to work early in the morning when the temperatures are cooler. BUT … we have had weeks on end of dump trucks, concrete mixers, caterpillars, front end loaders … engines idling, spewing fumes, empty dump truck beds having concrete dropped into them from above CLANG-C-CLANG-CLANG and the incessant BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP. (It seems they never go forward!) The trucks begin at 6:45 a.m. and the beeping starts at 7 a.m … 7:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the evening!! I cannot sit on my outside patio and enjoy summer because of the McMansion noise right next to my ear. I cannot sit on my lovely enclosed porch to eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner without being assaulted by noise. I can’t even avoid the noise by going to work … I have a home office.

Just take a drive around town and note the number of tear-downs and new construction …. I cannot be the only one with this complaint. I have a couple of suggestions. One: There should be an option to soften the caliber of the sound of back-up beeps when the vehicles are being used on an enclosed construction site. Two: the town or the company doing the work should put a notice in the mailboxes of local neighbors to let them know when said construction work is to be done. I was jarred awake Monday morning at 7 a.m. by a metallic grinding noise. I assumed they had begun grading Valley Road with one of those big machines. No. It was one man with a REALLY LOUD grinding machine, cutting the curb across the street. Couldn’t someone have dropped a note in my mailbox Friday afternoon saying. “Early Monday morning work will begin on the curb and sidewalk on your block”? Princeton is certainly ceasing to be a sleepy little town.

Jean Prall Rosolino

Walnut Lane