As I sat down to work on Monday, the on-and-off-again vroom, vroom, clip, clip of landscaping floated through the Star windows. It is hedge-trimming time of year once again, and two guys spent the better part of the morning shaping the Guild Hall greenery.
Meanwhile, rent-a-jets flew overhead, one after another, to pick up the second-tier multimillionaires. (The truly rich park their Gulfstreams at East Hampton over the entire weekend.)
While gas-powered leaf blowers are banned in the village between the middle of May and the middle of September, all of the other noisy, stinking lawn equipment is fine and dandy — except during certain hours and never on a Sunday. On federal holidays, of which there are 11 (I had to look it up), the ban is in place, too.
Scarcely is there a moment that I can step outside the office and not hear something other than the birds — and traffic. Yes, dear reader, I get annoyed. But I am not alone; our friends at Changehampton.org have a petition going calling for a year-round leaf-blower ban. Loud aircraft can be reported at planenoise.com/khtomobile. There should be something for landscaping noise, too.
Unfortunately, now that the privet has leafed out, it must be clipped into submission. Anything less than Teutonic, right-angle order simply will not do. There are miles of hedge in the village; nearly all of it will be due for a haircut by the Fourth of July. If I had a vote on hedge clippers, I would cast it for phasing out gas and phasing in electric year round.
As far as gas blowers go, we should be grateful for the rules, such as they are. Still, it strikes me as downright wrong that right when we can kick back a bit at summer’s end, the roar and airborne dust return.