Chadwick Manor residents irked by FedEx facility noise

The Richland board of supervisors heard from more Chadwick Manor residents regarding levels of noise disturbance created by the FedEx Freight facility in Gibsonia at their Jan. 18 meeting. The complaints follow the decision of the board to extend the FedEx Freight facility’s developer’s agreement from April 14, 2023, to Dec. 31, 2023, at the Dec. 21 meeting.

William Thornton of Thornton Acoustics presented the findings of a 15-day noise control study he conducted at the request of the Chadwick Manor homeowners association. This study focused solely on operational noise created by FedEx Freight, such as loading and unloading, trucks coming and going, and material handling. He installed an array of calibrated monitors/analyzers/recorders in Chadwick Manor to continuously measure and record noise data. Thornton also asked residents to keep noise logs to see when they were woken up at night or disturbed in the morning.

The study concluded seven nights and early mornings out of 15 had excessive noise disturbance levels.

Township manager Dean Bastianini asked if the board of supervisors would be permitted to have a copy of the full report to consider. Mike Griffin, president of the Chadwick Manor homeowner’s association, asserted that the full report is the property of the Chadwick Manor HOA and did not immediately acquiesce to Bastianini’s request.

Chadwick Manor residents Tami Greene, Phil Kane, Dawn O’Brien, Todd Ozer, Brian Greene and Mike Griffin all spoke about their concerns regarding the noise level created by FedEx Freight.

O’Brien played recordings of noises emanating at different times from FedEx Freight from a speaker she brought. “It’s startling and annoying all day, all night long,” she said.

Greene and Ozer also mentioned bright lights coming from FedEx Freight in addition to the loud noises. Ozer shared videos of bright lights shining through his home from FedEx Freight at 6 a.m. the morning of the meeting.

Bastianini assured them that that was a violation that he would pursue immediately.

“I want to acknowledge your concerns, your interest, your ideas,” Bastianini said. “I think that you’ve done a good job of documenting your perspective on the matter and providing some clarity. If we have an opportunity to look into this a little bit further, we’ll put our heads together. We want to be a positive influence and we want to preserve the peace in the community. We do have a responsibility to do that. I don’t have all of the answers for you tonight, but we’ll make a sincere effort to come up with what’s fair and reasonable and try to address the issues.”

In other business, the board of supervisors motioned to approve resolution No. 1 of 2023, amending the Sanitary Sewer Capital Fee imposed upon the sanitary sewer customers in the Willow Run and Crouse Run Watersheds serviced by Hampton Township. Richland doesn’t have a treatment plant in that area, so Hampton takes care of it. Richland is obligated to adopt the increase from the capital fee as part of the agreement with Hampton. The motion to approve passed unanimously.