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01/24/2023 11:27 AMRelief is on the way for neighbors living near Guilford High School (GHS). For more than a year, neighbors in a nearby subdivision have complained about noise generated by equipment operated by the school during the evening hours. The complaints led to sound testing, which indicated that the equipment exceeds the “noise level” regulations set by the town.
At their most recent meeting, the Board of Selectmen (BOS) authorized approximately $159,000 to purchase equipment to help reduce noise from two “chillers” utilized at the high school. According to Board of Education (BOE) Director of Operations and Facilities Cliff Gurnham, these “chillers” are a component of an energy-saving air conditioning system that runs during the evenings to make ice used for cooling purposes at the school.
Neighbors who reside at the Long Hill Fields complex on Long Hill have asked the BOE and the BOS to address the noise levels.
According to Gurnham, testing done by the town found levels exceeded permissible noise ordinance parameters by 10 decibels. Gurnham said that the units run throughout the year, not just in hotter months, as there is a constant need to cool certain school areas all year long.
“These are large condensing units that create the air conditioning for the high school, and they do run throughout a majority of the year to be able to cool different locations within the body of the school,” said Gurnham. “[I]n order to save energy during peak days and times, the system actually makes ice, and it does that at night. The chillers run hard at night to make that ice so that during the day, when we have peak electrical times, it can utilize that ice to cool rather than electricity to save money. But when they run full-bore, they do make some noise.”
The funds approved by the BOS will allow for the installation of what Gurnham described as “silencers” to reduce the noise the chillers make.
“We have gotten the approval to move forward by putting what we call ‘silencers’ on this equipment, which should reduce the amount of sound that comes off those chillers,” Gurnham said. “We’ve been working hand-in-hand with them [the residents] to help resolve the issue. We feel pretty comfortable that it should reduce the level of noise, hopefully significantly enough to make our neighbors notice the difference.”
First Selectman Matt Hoey said the matter was brought to the Board’s attention more than a year ago, and they have been working on the best solution for the problem.
“The issue came to our attention maybe a year ago or longer, and this is an issue that I took to Dr. [Paul] Freeman, and he and his team started having conversations with the neighbors,” Hoey said.
Hoey said that installing the silencers is not a guaranteed fix, but he was confident, after consultations with the manufacturer, that the noise levels would be reduced by this method.
“We asked Cliff to go back and capture for us in writing the solutions that had been evaluated by the professionals, the manufacturer, the engineers, all the folks who know these issues well, in addition to the standing building committee,” Hoey said. “We really wanted to know what options have been contemplated and what the experts recommend we should do. And as it turns out, the experts recommend this solution, and they believe it will get us below the decibel levels that are actually in our noise ordinance.”
There is yet to be a time frame for installation set, but both Gurnham and Hoey said they expect the project to begin as soon as is practical, with a possible late winter completion date.
“We are proceeding with making sure these baffles or this noise mitigation equipment is in place as soon as possible to relieve the burden from the local neighbors,” said Hoey.
Residents of the Long Hill Farm complex, where most of the complaints originated from, were reticent to speak on the record with The Courier about the situation. However, several residents closest to the chiller units said the noise is often quite intrusive and interferes with sleep and enjoyment of their properties, especially in warmer weather when windows are open.
Several residents stated that they felt both school and town officials were being responsive to their situation and said they were hopeful that the proposed sound mitigation proposal would address noise concerns.
Further noise level monitoring will occur once the “silencers” have been installed, according to town officials.