Noise

The parking problems that plagued the residential neighborhood around Boomerang's nightclub on the Delaware River have almost vanished, Commissioner Thomas J. Giancristoforo reported. But the noise level outside the 2-month-old club is still too high despite the club's addition of sound barriers and the rearrangement of stereo speakers, he said at Monday night's board meeting. Since portions of five roads near the club were restricted to residential- permit parking at the end of last month, Giancristoforo said he had received few complaints of neighbors unable to park.

THE CITY'S new agreement with Ride the Ducks that will return the boats to the Delaware River seems to address the safety failures that led to the tourist boat ride's fatal accident last summer. And a new provision will keep the duck boats quieter: "Quackers," those annoying sound-makers that riders use to bleat through the streets, will now be given out at the end of the tours instead of the beginning. We're not sure what this has to do with safety, but it has a lot to do with sanity.

Residents of Kings Road in Plymouth Township have been complaining since the Blue Route opened in December that the dirt berm behind their homes was not sufficient to block out traffic noise. So 10 homeowners have been asking officials of the state Department of Transportation to construct a sound barrier. PennDot hasn't decided. Now, the Plymouth Township Council and Richard Tilghman, the state senator from the 17th District, plan to get involved. Tilghman and two members of the Township Council are trying to set up a meeting with a PennDot sound barrier expert to address the concerns of their constituents.

While officials at Memorial Hospital of Burlington County in Mount Holly say their new Mobile Magnetic Resonance Imaging unit provides a community service, residents of the neighborhood surrounding the hospital complain that it keeps them awake at night. Madison Avenue resident Stephanie Wingett complained to the Mount Holly Township Council on June 10 that the large truck tractor that delivers the mobile-unit trailer to the hospital on a rotating schedule during odd hours of the late night and early morning is disturbing the usually quiet neighborhood.

The sounds of Montego Bay at the Woodbine Inn will not keep Cinnaminson residents awake this summer, but the residents did not keep the Woodbine from renewing its liquor license. A two-hour hearing last night drew a dozen disgruntled Cinnaminson residents and their township solicitor, all protesting what they say has been excessive noise created by live music, DJs and patrons at the outdoor nightclub during the last two summers. The outdoor area of the nightclub on Route 73 has been silent since last August, when Burlington County Judge John A. Sweeney ordered it closed until general manager Nick Kouvatas and Woodbine officials can prove they have reduced the noise, which carries quickly over the Pennsauken Creek to homes in the Glen Meade section of the neighboring township.

A new ordinance aimed at controlling excessive noise from televisions and stereos in Lumberton Township also focuses on noise generated by the construction of new homes. Members of the Township Committee unanimously approved the ordinance at their Dec. 16 meeting after a public hearing in which several farmers voiced fear they would be affected by the measure. But the township's clerk and administrator, Patricia Rainear, said farmers would be protected by the state Right to Farm Act. "This ordinance really is a guideline for the Police Department to follow when they receive a noise complaint," Rainear said.

Year-round, but in the winter especially, the northeast wind carries the rumbling, clattering noises from the Cinnaminson Industrial Park straight to the rooftops of homes in the small Rolling Greens neighborhood. Those noises shook houses and kept people up at night, residents said. The trees that had afforded a modest sound barrier were being chopped down to accommodate the expansion of various companies in the park. Morton Raphelson, with 29 years of residency on Winding Way, said he remembers when the industrial park, just north of Rolling Greens along River Road, was only woods.

Memorial Hospital of Burlington County in Mount Holly is being as cooperative as possible in satisfying neighbors who have been disturbed by the facility's new mobile magnetic resonance imaging unit, hospital officials say. After Madison Avenue residents complained to the Township Council in June about noise generated by a tractor-trailer that delivers the mobile unit to the hospital late at night and early in the morning, hospital officials said...

A Satiesque piano wafts through space. A Technicolor orchestra creeps behind, entering from stage left. An actor, John Hurt, is introduced. "When Debussy died on March the 25th, 1918, in Paris, it was being bombarded by the Germans. And it was raining," he announces, then clears the stage, leaving an opera diva's wail, wah-wah guitars, bulbous synth-bass, and a rush of soft jungle rhythm in his wake. "It's weeping in my heart like it's raining in the town," Hurt whispers in a deeply sensual burr from the wings.

Daily life is a noisy business. We said, NOISY. Why, you can hardly hear yourself think. We said, THINK. Automobile horns. Jet engines. Rock music. You know, the stuff that comes out of your Walkman headphones in order to drown out all the other noise. A person has to shout to be heard - louder and louder. And that's not great for the vocal chords. Evolution did not develop the human voice to its highest potential for the purpose of yelling "Taxi!" on Fifth Avenue on a rainy afternoon in New York, the scream capital of the world.

DARRELLE REVIS walked into the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' weight room and received a round of applause from some of his new teammates. The three-time All-Pro may have left the New York Jets feeling underappreciated, but he's a welcome addition to a defense that ranked last in the NFL last season and is expected to help transform the Bucs into a playoff team. And, the well-paid Revis is confident he's up to the task. "We're going to make a lot of noise. Don't worry about that," the seventh-year pro said Monday.

FIVE MORE leagues start conference tournaments on Wednesday, including a pair - the Ohio Valley and West Coast conferences - that could have serious implications for a few teams around here. If the favored mid-majors don't win their conferences, the anxiety level for those fighting to get into the NCAA Tournament will rise. Atlantic Sun Regular-season champ: Mercer (21-10) claimed its first crown since 2003. The Bears have wins at Florida State and at Alabama and the conference tournament is in their home gym where they were 13-0 this season.

The West Chester Borough Council approved the purchase Wednesday of "quiet zone" signs to be posted in several neighborhoods, among initiatives to ease residents' concerns over noise at night in student-heavy downtown areas near the West Chester University campus. Installing about 240 signs will cost $4,230, Councilman Jordan Norley said. The signs will indicate that the area is a "quiet zone" between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. and warn passersby that they risk a minimum $250 fine if they make too much noise.

The West Chester Borough Council approved the purchase Wednesday of "quiet zone" signs to be posted in several neighborhoods, among initiatives to ease residents' concerns over noise at night in student-heavy downtown areas near the West Chester University campus. Installing about 240 signs will cost $4,230, Councilman Jordan Norley said. The signs will indicate that the area is a "quiet zone" between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. and warn passersby that they risk a minimum $250 fine if they make too much noise.

The sound of explosions and shaking of the ground Saturday in Burlington and Ocean Counties will be nothing to worry about, military officials say. Members of the New Jersey Air National Guard's 177th Fighter Wing at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst will be having demolition training. Explosions are scheduled to be set off from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Burlington County ranges inside the Fort Dix portion of the base. "Some residents may hear more noise than usual coming from the ranges and may experience possible ground-shaking," said a statement from base officials.

A Delaware County man was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for the October 2011 shooting death of his Ridley Township neighbor. James Dellavecchia, 73, did not react as Judge Michael F.X. Coll handed down the mandatory sentence and added up to 14 years for additional charges. "What this does ... is triple-guarantee no matter what he will never be paroled," Coll said. It was before dawn on Oct. 10, that Dellavecchia lay in wait for his Ridley Township neighbor. When Scott Robins, left his house and headed to a nearby van to go to work, Dellavecchia stepped out and began firing a .40-caliber semiautomatic Ruger.

STATE COLLEGE - Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said star quarterback Braxton Miller is "very sore" after suffering a neck injury Saturday, but he is expected to practice in preparation to play Penn State, according to Meyer's Monday news conference. Penn State (5-2, 3-0 Big Ten) will have its work cut out for it even more so against undefeated Ohio State (8-0, 4-0) if Miller, the stud dual-threat sophomore, is able to play Saturday at Beaver Stadium. Miller was removed from Ohio State's win against Purdue and taken to the hospital after taking a big hit, but Meyer said tests came back negative.

Why So Many Predictions Fail - But Some Don't By Nate Silver Penguin. 523 pp. $27.95. Reviewed by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne I don't play chess. I don't gamble. I don't play poker. But I loved this book. Trust Nate Silver to write a wise but entertaining book in which the heroes are baseball coaches, poker players, gamblers, weather forecasters, and chess-playing computer scientists - and the villains are economists and political scientists, especially those who offer themselves as pundits.

A Delaware County Court jury found a Ridley Township man guilty of first-degree murder Friday in the 2011 killing of his neighbor. James Dellavecchia, 73, was convicted of fatally shooting Scott Robins, 42, in an October noise dispute. Prosecutors said Dellavecchia was upset about noise from his neighbor's construction project that disturbed his "slice of heaven. " Robins was on his way to work when he was shot six times. A seventh bullet lodged in his wallet. His stepdaughter, Kristen Snow, was critically wounded when she came into the driveway to check on her father.

By Harold I. Gullan OK, now we've seen and heard it all. Those over-wrought pep rallies for the already committed zealots still called political conventions are finally over. The deluge of media promotion to come isn't going to tell us anything new about any of the candidates. Accordingly, I invite you, my thoughtful fellow voters, to join me in a reflective retreat. No, we can't put our lives on hold. But we can, to the extent possible, try to tune out everything political (that is, partisan)