(Host) Tensions over noise from a gun club on the Vermont- Massachusetts border have erupted into accusations on both sides of the dispute.
The shooting range is used to train security forces for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
VPR’s Susan Keese has the story.
(Keese) The Leyden, Massachusetts, Rifle Range is several miles by car from the remote Guilford hilltop where Linda Hecker lives, but practically next door as the crow flies.
Hecker says she and her neighbors coexisted peacefully with the club for at least 30 years.
But the 2001 terrorist attacks led to new security requirements for nuclear power plants. And Entergy Vermont Yankee began training security personnel at the Leyden Rifle Range.
Hecker recalls the day it started, in May 2002.
(Hecker) " I heard this incredible racket and I ran out of the house thinking, ‘It sounds like war.’ And I went down to the road and … there were about a dozen guys in tactical dress and with tactical weapons and I said, ‘What the heck is going on ?’"
(Keese) Hecker and her Guilford neighbors lodged complaints and met repeatedly with Entergy, trying to persuade them to do their training elsewhere.
Vermont Yankee communications officer Larry Smith says the plant has been looking for another site, so far without success.
(Smith) "And until this point the Leyden rifle range is the only facility that has the characteristics that we need to meet the NRC regulations."
(Keese) Smith says security rules prevent him from saying what those characteristics are.
He says the plant has tried to help by providing neighbors with a training schedule, so at least they’ll be prepared. The officers train a total of 58 days annually.
Smith agreed that Entergy is louder than other users of the range.
(Smith) "We’re using enhanced weapons, not just target shooting. There’s specific training the officers have to complete. And we’re also doing night firing because that’s a requirement of the NRC and I’m sure it’s disturbing when it goes on ‘til 8 o’clock at night."
(Keese) Some neighbors on the Leyden side have put up lawn signs saying no shooting after 6 p.m.
(Gunshots, continue under women) (Woman) "I think they’re being rather quiet today." (Woman 2) "Yeah, the other night it was really bad."
(Keese) The neighbors say the noise has intensified this month. And so has the hostility. Sue Sojka lives on the road that dead ends at the range. On a particularly loud night recently, she called the police to complain.
(Sojka) "Didn’t even get a call back. I was stewing from this noise…. You could hear it over the TV. You could hear it over the fans to the stove"
(Keese) Sojka says she heard the marksmen honking their truck horns up the road and then the sounds of yelling.
In the altercation that followed, a Leyden neighbor claimed his foot was driven over by a truck. Local resident Cecelia Tusinksi says half an hour later state and local police arrived.
The Leyden group has asked its town officials to investigate why police apparently responded to complaints from Entergy, but not from them.
But Larry Smith of Entergy says there are two sides to every story.
(Smith) "And VY has interviewed all Entergy employees involved in the Tuesday night incident and reviewed all details from that night and concluded VY security personnel acted and responded in a professional manner."
(Keese) The protesting neighbors say no one has asked for their version of the events. A member of the Leyden select board says it could take 90 days for its investigation of the incident to be complete.
For VPR News, I’m Susan Keese