Can’t sleep? It’s only temporary

There’s a deep rumbling outside the house that feels like someone is trying to shake the siding off. It’s vibrating my windows and making it difficult to concentrate on writing my column. It’s 7:15 p.m., not terribly late. But here’s the fun part — my family gets to deal with this racket all night!

For the last several weeks, crews have been clearing the old potato fields at Palmer-Wasilla Highway and Trunk Road. Around a dozen machines (bulldozers, loaders, etc.) are operating around the clock to get the trees cut, hills flattened and ground leveled. So, as my wife and I try to get to sleep, we are gently soothed to sleep with a clank, clank, clank that sounds like an amplified version of the beginning of a roller-coaster ride, a chorus of beep, beep, beep back-up alarms and banging, scraping, screeching and rumbling.

OK, we’re not actually soothed to sleep. In fact, we haven’t had a decent night’s sleep in weeks. We stare at the ceiling until we get so tired we finally fall asleep, usually sometime around 1 a.m. If we’re lucky, we’re so exhausted we sleep through the rest of the morning. Most of the time, though, there is a loud bang around 3 or 4 a.m. that jolts us awake. From there, it’s impossible to get back to sleep. So I slowly grumble myself out of bed around 5:30 a.m. to go make some coffee and wonder how in the heck I will stay awake through my morning commute to Anchorage, let alone the rest of the day.

Think I’m exaggerating? Check out the videos I took and posted on a friend’s YouTube account:

• http://tinyurl.com/85u5e2u

• http://tinyurl.com/7nzhbxz

The rinky-dink microphone on my phone doesn’t do the racket justice, but you’ll get the idea.

I can’t go into too much detail about what I do at my state job, but let me say that I help 80 or more people every day, on the phones, in a high-paced environment where people depend on me to get the money they need to survive another week. Hard to stay focused and get it done right when it’s almost impossible to stay awake.

I’ve heard rumors regarding what is going to be built there, but best I can tell, CIRI Corp. bought the land a few years back and is now preparing it in hopes somebody will build on it. So not only does everybody in my neighborhood have to listen to this noise all night, but we’re enduring this for CIRI shareholder profit? Not a hospital, not a school.

Several of my neighbors and I contacted the Mat-Su Borough code compliance people.

The code compliance woman I spoke with was very polite and understanding; however, she said the noise ordinance doesn’t apply to heavy equipment “because the construction season in Alaska is so short.”

I’m not positive, but I’d be willing to guess that exemption was made out of concern for work needed to maintain our infrastructure. I doubt anyone thought a company would totally disregard the people in a residential neighborhood while it operates its equipment all dang night.

The woman in code compliance said she had already spoken with CIRI, which had assured her workers were “knocking off” every night around 6 p.m. CIRI scores an “F” for honesty on this one.

I also got a response from Mat-Su Borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss after I sent him the link to the videos: “Your consolation is that it is only temporary,” he wrote.

That’s it. That’s all I got. Really? Maybe we should try using that rationale in other situations. Punched in the face? Tornado? IRS audit? Getting mugged? Home invasion or burglary? Hey, no worries! Your consolation is that it’s only temporary!

The best thing to come out of this is that we as a neighborhood have been united as we talk and work together to try and resolve this situation.

Apparently, CIRI has chosen to not abide by one of the best things about Alaska and Alaskans — being a good neighbor. But its negligence has been a benefit in that it has united my neighborhood in an effort to fight this assault on our ears and lives.

After writing my column last night, I received word this morning from borough manager John Moosey. He spoke with the project engineer, who has agreed to cease evening construction.

A special thank you also to assemblyman Ron Arvin for going to bat for us on this one.

But this issue is larger than our neighborhood. Many millions of dollars in new projects planned in the Mat-Su Valley over the next several years, and many of these projects will be constructed in residential areas.

This is an issue that needs serious thought and perhaps modification of existing rules that curtail evening construction.

Without an ordinance in the borough to prohibit construction companies from working all night in residential areas, we are all left depending on them to be courteous new neighbors.

Ben Compton is a Palmer resident and publishes his column as “Compton’s Corner,” the same title used by his grandmother, Phyllis Compton, a longtime Frontiersman columnist.