MARLBOROUGH (CBS) – The helicopters hover just a few feet off the ground, and almost everyday young pilots from North Andover Flight Academy are learning how to fly. But some neighbors that live near by the Marlboro Airport want the noisy helicopters to fly away for good.
“You can hardly hear yourself talk and you have to keep the TV up and you can’t hear the phone ring,” disgruntled resident Ken Foret said.
The Marlboro Airport has been here for more than 80 years and has always run a pilot school.
Recently the airport has opened up a satellite school for helicopter training. About 32 hours a month the helicopters hover, take off and land disturbing some neighbors.
“It’s back and forth and it doesn’t stop for a long time. When you have the windows open then that’s really annoying,” resident Lakmini Prematillake said. Airport owner Robert Stetson says he’s trying to be a good neighbor but it is an airport. “I don’t claim it’s my right, but I do claim it’s a legitimate use of this property,” Stetson said.
The city does have a strict noise ordinance but the FAA has the final say. “I did take some noise readings and the noise levels were not that exorbitant,” Marlborough Code Enforcement Officer Pamela Wilderman said.
Ken Foret says the helicopter noise is robbing him and his neighbors of their peace and feels his complaints are falling on deaf ears. “Long and short of it is that we want the North Andover Flight Academy to move their helicopter training some other place other than Marlborough and out of my back yard,” Foret said.
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