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Flushing resident fed up with late night disruptions
LIVING HISTORY
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
Late night noise from
dump trucks driving to a
construction site in a Flushing
block has caused quite a
disruption, and one resident
is looking to put an end to it,
once and for all.
In an email to QNS, the
woman, who declined to provide
her name for privacy
concerns, said massive construction
vehicles had been
showing up throughout the
summer at all hours of the
night at the construction site
located at 36-25 172nd St.
“The building that was
on the lot was sold last year
and demo took place several
months ago. Construction
started in July or August,
and the trucks became a problem
in August,” she told QNS.
“They either stopped coming
for a while, or I didn’t hear
them with the air conditioner
on at night, but now that it’s
been nice enough to sleep
with the windows open again,
the trucks wake us up every
night.”
The Flushing resident
filed several complaints with
the Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP) and
an NCO police officer from
the 109th Precinct about the
noisy commotion that has
kept her up late at night, unable
to sleep, she said.
“The idling has somewhat
Queens residents walked in the footsteps of Union soldiers and discovered all aspects of life in
the 1860s at Fort Totten. See photos on Page 3. Photo by Dean Moses
stopped since I filed proper
complaints with the DEP, but
trucks continue to arrive at
this work site at all hours of the
night and morning,” the woman
said. “This morning, trucks
came at 12:30, 1:30 and 2:30 a.m.
They park in the hydrant on the
block and in the driveway of the
construction site.”
“Do you know what a giant
dump truck sounds like
trying to parallel park at that
hour?” she added.
In response to her complaint,
the NCO officer (who
patrols the area known as
Sector D) had advised the
workers at the site about the
complaints, however, the
noise remains ongoing, she
said.W
hen she contacted DEP,
she was told to file a Citizen
Air Complaint on the DEP
website for trucks idling
for more than two minutes,
which she says she has done
several times, sending photos
and videos of the trucks
parked outside her bedroom
window.
In a letter sent on Sept.
7, the DEP said they have
reviewed the complaints received
on Aug. 13 and Aug. 14.
As a result, a summons will
be written by a DEP air pollution
inspector.
“Three out of four reports
I filed are under investigation
with pending hearings,”
she told QNS.
According to the resident,
the dump trucks are from a
company called Elohim Truck
Services & Collision in Lafayette,
N.J., arriving between
the hours of 12:15 a.m. and 5
a.m., sometimes idling across
the street from the construction
site.
“The idling is loud enough
that we can’t have a conversation
inside our house when
these trucks arrive. There is
absolutely no reason for these
trucks to arrive at the hours
they do,” she said.
Although the NCO officer
notified her about the site’s
work permit that were in order
and they were granted an
after-hours permit, she says
their after-hour work permit
does not cover after 5 p.m.
She has also contacted
state Senator John Liu’s office
seeking help, and was
told that they’re reporting the
issue to the DEP.
As of late, she says she will
not stop “nagging until the
109 does something.”
“The more I’m awakened
at 2 a.m. by these trucks, the
crankier I’m going to get, so
I’d really like to put an end to
it,” she said.
In a statement to QNS,
Liu’s office said, “We are
working on a multitude of
constituent requests, which
we consider confidential for
the constituent.”
Vol. 28 No. 40 56 total pages
October 5 & 6
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