Baffles to be installed in Marblehead schools to cut noise

MARBLEHEAD-The Village School Building Oversight Committee and the school?s contractor are poised to install baffles at the school to diminish the noise from the three flues for school?s new boilers, according to BOC Chairman Michael Rockett.For at least one neighbor, the relief can?t come a minute too soon.In a March 25 letter read publicly at the last selectmen?s meeting, Thomas Adams said the contractor, Symmes, Maini and McKee, has “just now” responded with plans to “remediate the noise.”?The neighbors want the noise to stop, not just a bandage applied! This noise did not exist prior to the renovation project,” Adams wrote.Superintendent of Schools Paul Dulac said the noise issue did not surface until last winter, when the new boilers were functioning for the first time.?We?re waiting for the weather to get better,” Rockett said, explaining that the school roofers were ready to install the bafflers “as soon as the temperature is 50 degrees or higher, 24 hours a day.”The town is paying for the labor, not the bafflers themselves, and once the bafflers are installed the boilers will be run to test their effectiveness, he said.Adams also said the committee should have communicated with the neighbors. Rockett pointed out that BOC meetings are open to the public and another nrighbor, Thomas Carroll, has attended them to stay informed.?We hope to have the problem resolved,” he said.