LYNN — Neighbors say they are tired of school bus drivers constantly beeping their horns in the early morning hours.
City Council President Darren Cyr said at Tuesday night’s City Council Public Safety & Public Health Committee meeting that the disruptive sound is apparently being used as an alarm for parents and kids who reside at a three-family home at 16-18 St. Clair St.
Parents don’t have their kids ready for school when the bus comes by in the morning, which prompts drivers to honk their horns for up to 15 minutes starting at 6 a.m. until the students come outside. Per the city’s noise ordinance, horns are only allowed to be sounded for an emergency situation, according to Cyr, the ward councilor for the area.
The tenants at 16-18 St. Clair St. are placed by Centerboard, through an agreement the nonprofit’s CEO Mark DeJoie has with the landlord, Travis Sachs. The kids reside in Lynn, but are being bused to out-of-district schools.
DeJoie and Sachs did not attend Tuesday’s meeting.
One neighbor, Cheryl Gay, said the horns are sounding from as many as six buses from 5:50 a.m. to 8 a.m. But it’s not just the buses disturbing her sleep and that of her neighbors.
It’s the constant noise and disruptions coming from 16-18 St. Clair St., which include late night music, safety concerns such as overdoses and physical altercations at the home, along with overflowing trash, according to Gay.
“This house has been disturbing the peace both at night and again in the early morning hours, affecting sleep on both ends, making for frustrated and tired neighbors,” Gay told the City Council later in the evening. “After two years of this, our neighborhood has had enough. Not only does this disturb our neighborhood, but it puts an unnecessary strain on our already strained police department.
“This is a quality of life issue. We deserve the right to peace and quiet,” she said.
The noise from the buses and disruptions coming from the three-family home, which city councilors have deemed public safety and quality of life issues, has prompted Cyr to recommend that the home be declared a “nuisance property,” which could result in a demolition order. He said he’s been getting complaints about the property on a weekly basis for two years.
The City Council voted to set down a public hearing for the recommendation and send a letter to Lynn Police Chief Michael Mageary, requesting that $300 fines be issued to bus drivers and residents who violate the city’s noise ordinance.
“I have repeatedly requested that the bus drivers not utilize their horns,” Cyr wrote in a correspondence to Sachs and DeJoie. “The surrounding neighbors have also requested that the use of bus horns immediately cease as it awakens them hours before work and negatively affects their quiet enjoyment of their own residences.
“These requests have fallen on deaf ears and oftentimes result in verbal and in some instances, physical confrontations between the residents of 16-18 St. Clair St. and their surrounding neighbors.”
But representatives from two bus companies who service the home told the City Council their drivers beep their horns, but the prolonged early morning sound is not coming from them. There are at least four bus companies that service the address, Cyr said.
Caitlin Rubchinuk, of Supreme Charter, a bus company out of Danvers, said their pickup time is 6:50 a.m. so none of their buses should be at the home before that. Their protocol is to beep their horns twice, once when they arrive and then again a minute and a half later. She said their drivers are not idling either — they leave after three minutes if a student hasn’t come outside.
Maria Reyes, a representative from another bus company that services the home, Jackie’s Transportation, said their pickup time isn’t until 8:45 a.m. Sometimes parents don’t have cell phones, which means the horn is used as a point of contact. Some parents are more responsible than others with having their kids ready, she said.
Some councilors felt the blame was ultimately with the parents. Part of the vote on Tuesday was to allow the bus companies time to alert parents that they would no longer be beeping their horns to summon students and that it was their responsibility to have their kids ready on time.
“I think the message just needs to be sent to parents to have kids ready five minutes before the bus is going to get there,” said Ward 2 Councilor Rick Starbard. “If you’re going to be late for the bus, you’re going to be late for just about everything else that comes in life. If they’re not ready when the bus pulls up and don’t come out when prompted by the horn, then move on and eventually they’ll get the message.”
