Image courtesy of ASHRAE "Acoustics 101"
The same topic was brought before the Lower Gwynedd Supervisors in July.
There is a disturbing noise coming from the Wissahickon Middle School. Located at 500 Houston Road, the sounds are not of children playing, disruptive sports in the neighboring athletic fields, or even traffic passing by. Instead, neighbors near the school have repeatedly complained about sounds of an air conditioner/chiller system that bothers them greatly.
As previously reported by Wissahickon Now, several neighbors turned to the Lower Gwynedd Township Board of Supervisors in July, frustrated with the lack of action or response from the school district.
The supervisors largely directed the complaints back to the school district, noting there was not much that the supervisors could do, considering the units were on district property. They encouraged an open dialogue between the neighbors and the school.
Eric Rudolph, of Lower Gwynedd Township, attended the August Wissahickon School Board of Directors meeting to air his frustrations to the school district directly.
“I’m here to talk about the disturbing noise coming from Wissahickon Middle School,” said Rudolph. “My neighbors and my family have been living with a recurring and disturbing noise, which sounds like an industrial fan.” Rudolph played a recorded sample of the sounds, which he said can be heard from his patio.
“That’s my patio. It’s a June morning at 7 o’clock,” he said. “That’s why I’m here.”
However, the sound was nothing new to the Lower Gwynedd Township residents living near the school’s land.
“This disturbing noise has been going on since the new chiller was put on the middle school roof five years ago,” said Rudolph. “It cuts and stands above ambient noise, which includes nature, general life, and use of the playing fields.”
Rudolph said there was no such issue prior to the district’s relocation of the air conditioning and chiller components. Since then, the neighborhood residents have asked the district for help on more than one occasion.
“My neighbors and I have notified the district repeatedly through the years,” he said. “The district has repeatedly acknowledged the issue and responded that it was being fixed. Yet, it continues.”
Rudolph said even district staff had come to the location to understand the problem facing surrounding neighbors.
“In 2023, the buildings and grounds supervisors visited my home, acknowledged the noise, and on April 19 conducted a sound study,” he said. “The sound study concluded that the Wissahickon School District is in violation of Lower Gwynedd Township ordinances, and recommended solutions which included replacement of an existing sound blanket with an improved sound blanket.”
Rudolph said that, as a chemical engineer for 42 years himself, he’s worked in plenty of industrial settings and for various regulatory authorities.
“I have working experience in dealing with these matters, but I’m not a certified acoustic or HVAC engineer,” said the Lower Gwynedd resident. “As reported in the studies, on a 56-degree day of the study, a much cooler-than-typical day on which a chiller is operating, and still, the ordinance was exceeded by four decibels.”
He continued that, on summer days, of course, the chillers must work harder and make far more noise doing so. According to Rudolph, these sounds could go five to 10 decibels louder than even noted in the study.
Lower Gwynedd Township’s online ordinances state the rules regarding sound levels in Ordinance 36, section 660.03, labeled “Noise.” It was passed on April 20, 1959.
“At no point on the boundary of a residential or business district shall the sound pressure level of any operation exceed the decibel levels in the designated octave bands shown below for the districts indicated,” reads the ordinance.
Image courtesy of Lower Gwynedd TownshipThe science behind the chart, as well as detailed measurements and ranges that are acceptable, are likely well beyond the basic educated adult’s comprehension. However, the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) said in an “Acoustics 101” lesson on products in its industry, that the sound of the average chiller ranges around 90 dBA. For comparison, the study notes that basic speech is often around 60 dBA, while a buzzing insect would be near 20 dBA. A commercial airplane, at 120 dBA, would break a “threshold of pain,” according to ASHRAE.
Rudolph said that the sound blanket, provided by the HVAC supplier of the district, is insufficient, providing only “a typical of two to five decibel reduction.” He says such measures leave the sounds still far out of compliance with township ordinances.
“The chiller was represented in the building permit as a replacement,” said Rudolph. “This was not a replacement. It was a change in compressors and a relocation with many complicated noise factors, which were not addressed in the installation nor considered in the sound study.”
Rudolph added that it was known that this chiller added 107 decibels of sound level, which would have exceeded the sound ordinances for the area’s boundary conditions.
Though Rudolph exceeded his time during public comment, he said that the issue was one of safety.
“The area is not segregated,” he said. It is unknown if the sounds impact children at the levels present. Rudolph was asked by the board of directors to “email the remainder of his comments,” as time did not allow for him to finish. Each public speaker is limited to a three-minute clock and must stop speaking at the sound of an alarm bell.
Irene Lewis, who also spoke at the Lower Gwynedd Supervisors’ Meeting in July, of Montgomery Road, has been a resident of her home for over 20 years, having had two children grow up in the district. She said she too was impacted by the “noisy HVAC.”
“This year the noise has been so loud, that I can hear it all the way down to the bend in Montgomery Road,” said Lewis. She said when she walks daily in the neighborhood she hears it through the woods. She said when she sits on her side porch she hears it. When she walks her dog on Montgomery Road, she hears it.
“It sounds like a car horn that never stops,” said Lewis. “Please believe me when I tell you we are not making this up.”
She said she is grateful for the education her two children received in the district.
“We’re people just like you, we all love Lower Gwynedd,” said Lewis. “And we want to enjoy a peaceful neighborhood. But this summer has been especially difficult.”
Lewis said her own son has “been consumed” with letter writing, filing Right to Know forms, and scoured video and tape recordings to understand how to fight this constant burden. She said some neighbors have been emailing with the district since 2020.
“We have been told the school is working on it, and a solution may come in a few weeks,” she said. “We’ve waited for years as the noise continues to get worse. This problem is urgent.” She said that, since the April sound study, the noise level has been documented as being over the ordinance-permitted sound levels.
“Please act to restore a trusting and empathetic relationship with our community so that we can all live in peace again,” she said.
Richard Gilly, another long-time resident of Montgomery Road, also weighed in, echoing the concerns of his neighbors. He had four boys go through the district schools.
“I’m going to give more of a legal perspective to this, since I’m an attorney,” said Gilly. “In addition to the three or four of use you hear tonight, we as a neighborhood have at least 30 other households that have signed on to a complaint letter, which has already been sent to the township, to the school board, or both.”
Gilly said that all co-signers had similar experiences and evidence of the “disturbance of the quiet enjoyment of their property,” and that at the level of complains, the topic may no longer be a private nuisance but a public one.
He said that, due to the school board “dragging its feet,” the group may have a solid case for “indifference” which would subject the district’s inaction to punitive damages.
“There are already blankets on these chillers, so the proposal at some uncertain date at some uncertain time to put on replacement blankets that supposedly were ordered, although the purchase order does not have any date of delivery on it, is highly unlikely at best that it’s going to solve the problem,” said Gilly.
He said past “supposed adjustments” made in 2020, 2021, and 2022 when each year the district told him “supposedly it was fixed” only to return again the following summer.
He too urged the board for an immediate solution.
Nick Militello, another Montgomery Road homeowner, also spoke at Monday’s meeting.
“I really have two points to have you hear and think about,” he said. “When people move into wherever they move, wherever their house is, whatever location, they have accepted noise tolerances. If you move near Bethlehem Pike, Penllyn Pike, you accept that you’re going to have traffic sounds most of the day.”
He said his house is nearest to the tennis courts at the middle school.
“I know I’m going to hear, in the afternoons, quite a few days, athletes playing, children playing, the horns of the track and field events, football events,” Militello said. “These are accepted sounds and noises that have a time frame.”
He said that the chillers’ noise, however, occurs at least from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. at ever-increasing volume. He said that the move of the chillers to the ground level added a problem of echo, which bounces the sounds even more so to the area of Montgomery Road.
“This is not what we moved into, it was created after the fact,” he said. Militello also wondered what the sound level must be inside the middle school, concerned that the students and teachers must also be distracted by the noise.
“I was a highly distractable student as a child,” Militello said. “When I go into a noisy environment, I had a very difficult time paying attention.”
The resident said, if not for the neighbors suffering, perhaps the district would act on behalf of its middle school students and staff.
James Sacchetta, of Cedar Lane, said he would call the problem “noise pollution.” He’s lived there for over 44 years.
“We love our quiet little neighborhood,” he said. “It’s no longer quiet.”
He said that the level of noise has been linked to health complications, such as high blood pressure, stress, and sleep disturbance.
“This board should take this seriously,” said Sacchetta, who equated spending an hour near it was “like a torture chamber.” He even invited the board over for “beverages and hors devours” to try out the sound for one hour.
He said the district’s report taking measurements on a 56-degree day was a sure sign they were dodging responsibility, as the unit would not be producing as loud of sounds at such cool outdoor temperatures.
“You all know how many days we had in the 90-degrees,” he said of this summer’s weather. He said these temps resulted in taking the noise from the chillers to a “dangerous level.”
“This process was doing its best to avoid addressing that factor,” he said of the study. Sacchetta also had an issue with the building permit used to put this chiller in its place, as it reportedly noted “no change.” The Cedar Lane resident argued that moving the chiller to its current location was the change that caused much of the issue.
“That’s no change?” he said. “Not to mention the application for the building permit wasn’t signed by the zoning officer to approve the building permit. That’s a serious problem. It’s right here, blank. That doesn’t set well with me with other misrepresentation on the building permit.”
He concluded saying the issue was “not going away.”
The Wissahickon School District only allows for five speakers per topic during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Director Deanne Morris did ask how many decibels the new blankets should bring down the levels of sound, asking that the board look into the matter. She also asked if there was an acoustical fencing that might help in the matter, adding that she once moved because the noise of living too close to a highway was unbearable.
“I’m not suggesting you move,” she said.
Morris said she would also like to know if any students or staff from within the middle school had filed any type of complaint. A resident offered off-camera and off-mic feedback, however, Morris was cut off, as the board’s president, Amy Ginsburg, reminded her that the policy was not to conduct back-and-forth, individual conversations during public meetings.
Morris did conclude that she’d like to see the possible solutions the district is proposing.
“I think that’s our responsibility, right?” asked Morris.
Ginsburg suggested that the directors “have a chat with Tim,” presumably meaning Tim Bricker, the business administrator. She did not, however, specify.
The directors did not make any additional response or comment during Monday’s meeting. Directors will on occasion address questions or add comments to the BoardDocs system, a publicly accessible online portal which allows the posting of meetings, videos, agendas, and minutes.
