Neighbors tired of hearing hammering by Saugus man building horse barn

SAUGUS – Eugene Capobianco’s backyard looks like a bomb went off.But the massive crater behind his house on Main Street isn’t from any explosion, it’s the result of three years of jackhammering the massive Bluestone ledge that made up most of his property in order to make room for a horse stable and indoor riding arena.Now that Capobianco said he’s “98 percent” finished with the hammering, neighbors above his yard on Juniper Drive are saying they’ve had enough.”It’s like being in a mine where somebody is drilling for gold or something,” said AnnMarie DeLorfano, whose home sits on a ledge directly above Capobianco’s property. “It’s jackhammering Bluestone, which is the hardest stone. So you can imagine what that sounds like.”Capobianco said he’s been hammering on and off for the last three years, but ramped things up this summer so he can bring in his two Registered Morgans, Chester and Monty. But Capobianco thinks it’s the horses that are the real issue.”I’m not a complainer,” said Capobianco. “The problem is, am I being discriminated against at this point? My neighbor has been hammering this whole time too. Why would you stop me and not him? It makes me think, ‘What is it then?’ I think they just don’t want the horses here.”Originally, Capobianco was hammering Monday through Saturday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., but after neighbors complained about the noise, the Board of Health cut his hours to 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Capobianco complied and on June 15, he and the board agreed that he would only need 10 weeks to finish the hammering.However, neighbors continued to complain about the noise and Capobianco was issued a cease and desist order on Aug. 23, leaving him 18 days shy of completion, according to town records.”I agree it’s noisy,” said Capobianco, who was granted a permit from the Board of Selectmen in March. “I wouldn’t want to live next to it. But I accommodated them and I did everything legally. I don’t want to give my neighbors a hard time. Without getting this hammering done, I can’t finish the foundation.”On Wednesday Board of Health members did a decibel test. The hammer, with a noise suppressing wrap, came in at 84 db from 10 to 15 feet away. The maximum decibel level for residential areas is 60 db and 70 db for commercial.”The method of muffling the sound that he was trying did reduce it somewhat,” said Director of Public Health Frank Giacalone, “but it’s still definitely over the threshold.”DeLorfano acknowledged that the wrapping did help with the noise somewhat, but said it’s still unbearable and she’s hoping Capobianco can blast the remaining rock to get it over with.”It did make a difference,” said DeLorfano. “But you can only deal with it if it’s not every single day, Monday through Friday, eight hours a day. If he can (blast) we would prefer that because it would be quick, in and out verses another three and a half weeks of jackhammering.”But Capobianco said it’s too late to blast and he only needs 18 more days of hammering to finish.”Any type of blasting will really affect the foundation with cracking and settling,” said Capobianco.Giacalone said he’s waiting for confirmation from blasting companies before he settles on a solution.”He is claiming since the amount of ledge now that needs to be taken out is very minimal, blasting might not be able to be done,” said Giacalone. “We need confirmation of that. We want to appease the general public because it’s a nuisance, but we also want to work with him to get his Board of Selectmen-approved stable built.”Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected]. You can follow him on Twitter at @MattTempesta.