Leaf blowers more than just a convenience

To the Editor, 

I was disappointed to read a letter advocating for the banning leaf blowers in the borough of Swarthmore (Russell Bertrand, 5/21 edition). Bans and excessive regulations are more suited to communities with homeowners associations, where everyday life can be, and is, micromanaged. 

We already have laws on the books prohibiting powered equipment of all types being used early in the morning or at night within 1,000 feet of residential areas. That seems a fair compromise.

In a leafy, gardened town like ours, leaf blowers aren’t a mere convenience. The letter writer suggests that we can rely on rakes and brooms. However, there are those in our community who do not have the physical strength to do what was so breezily suggested. “Aging in place” (as advocated for by Borough Council) presumably means having the option of paying people to do some yard work or using power tools to reduce physical labor.

Batteries in leaf blowers don’t last long enough for widespread commercial use, and, if gas-powered equipment is banned, contractors will either refuse to bid for jobs in Swarthmore or charge vastly more for hand raking. Perhaps this is no hardship for the wealthiest, but it is a burden for those on fixed incomes, or renters who pay for every cent of landscaping costs via their monthly charge.

Finally, I don’t think the borough is equipped or funded to investigate every alleged transient use of forbidden yard equipment by homeowners or their contractors. Do we want the borough and its taxpayers to adjudicate what are inevitably neighbor-versus-neighbor disputes? 

I won’t argue that leaf blowers make a pleasant sound. But we should be wary of ill-considered bans and of those who seek legislation to solve the modest problems of everyday, if sometimes noisy, suburban life.

Here’s to a peaceful, healthy summer.

Neil J. Young
Swarthmore