Letter: The ground-pounding din disturbing Sleepy Gap

Graphic by Lori Deaton

When you are prepared for the impact of loud sounds, single or repetitive, the power involved can be thrilling and much like the rush of big fireworks. When the violence is sudden, random, earthshaking, sometimes constant, lasting for months, starting 8 a.m. sharp, and where the only respite is in your basement, well, that’s just your neighbor moving a granite cliffside for personal use.

I have now endured over five months of invasive ground-pounding excavators hammering away at blue granite to rearrange a cliffside for a house. When the banging and explosive crunching of rock is not occurring, I still hear it in my head; much like when the image of a light bulb remains when you close your eyes.

Then, when the sound of five-rounds-per-second of automatic-pneumatic-granite gunfire ends, it will be replaced with the sounds of heavy equipment, their incessant “backup” beepers and a grand finale of pneumatic nail gunfire. The sounds of this “uphill battle” will last for almost a year. And it will start again when someone else can afford to bang and grind for months on end for their personal cliffside dwelling.

Sleepy Gap can be renamed “Wake & Quake” Gap because we have new neighbors. and they can afford to violently rearrange the cliffs of Walnut Cove for a house with a view.

— Marc Clayton
Arden

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