Gas leaf blower ban extension blocked in Marblehead at town meeting

MARBLEHEAD, MA – The annual battle to ban gas-powered leaf blowers in Marblehead was put on hold this week as town meeting members voted to indefinitely suspend three articles that would have turned the current summer ban into a year-round ban and approved exceptions delete the current statutes and increase fines for violations.

The ban failed in city meeting votes for nearly a decade before moving from Memorial Day to Labor Day two years ago and adding enforcement mechanisms last year.

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(Also on patch: Marblehead becomes latest MA city to reject state zoning law)

But opponents of banning gas-powered blades said more needs to be done — including a complete ban — in the name of public health, noise and air pollution, and quality of life.

“The summer ban doesn’t go far enough at all,” said Sabrina Velandry, co-author of the articles, adding that the sound of leaf blowers is like “a torture device” for many.

However, those in favor of a postponement said that developers and homeowners had already made concessions in approving the summer ban and that they hoped the vote to suspend the extension of the ban would resolve the issue once and for all.

In the vote to postpone the article on the year-round ban there were 345 votes in favor to 162 against, while in the vote to suspend the article that would abolish exceptions to the ban there were 355 votes in favor to 137 votes and in the vote to suspend of Article 137 in favor imposed a $300 fine after an initial warning – current enforcement includes escalating fines – 286 were in favor of the suspension and 204 were against.

(Scott Souza is Patch Field Editor, covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)