Here in the official Lower Merion Township noise zone of Haverford, we are tired. Tired of the noise and dirt and traffic from numerous construction projects along Lancaster Avenue and apprehensive about the residential construction yet to come. In our neighborhood, which is indeed like an island given it's position between large roads, institutions, etc, it seems like there is the constant din of noise, mostly from construction at least 16 hours a day if not more.

Recently, we have all begun to be tortured once again by Amtrak. It's amazing how many of those guys stand around and just make noise and jabber away on the clock. It's amazing how much noise they can make, how they can't simply park in that almost always empty Septa lot adjacent to Sharpe Park, how they think it is OK to toss water bottles filled with urine all over.....

Amtrak is our collective hard earned tax dollars at work, and here is an e-mail that one of our neighbors sent out along with photos this morning. We would like to share with all of you out there. This missive was sent to state and local elected officials, as well as the office of Congressamn Jim Gerlach.

"I am sick of Amtrak taking advantage.....Ok, we get it they are doing track work. Yes, we know they are going to leave equipment staged everywhere and that means that 24 hours a day, until the equipment moves, every time freight or passenger rail goes by they are going to blow their air horns constantly. Yes, we get replacing rails around here is the next best substitute for having a job on the Brooklyn Bridge.

So yes, we are all woken out of sleep each night for air horn blowing, and the rumbling, rattling and LOUD noise that occurs as either freight or Amtrak equipment moves up and down the tracks. Do you know what it is like to be in the deepest of sleeps and how an air horn blown at 3 a.m. or whatever affects you?

But why do I or anyone else also have to be woken up sometimes while it is still dark by now the Amtrak workers in addition to the Haverford School construction workers?

Between 5:20 a.m. and 7 a.m. it was hard to tell who was making more noise. At 7:30 a.m. ......it was wall to wall Amtrak - people, buses, trucks, cars, people. Now mind you, these workers like the OTHER construction workers arrive on average TWO hours before they start doing ANYTHING. And they make noise. They play their radios and boom boxes. They curse at the top of their lungs at whatever is going on in their lives. They eat and toss their trash. Their vehicles, large and small, idle and omit fuel fumes, and oh, they block all sight lines because they are also, for the most part parking illegally.

When I came back from our walk, we found one of the vehicles BLOCKING our driveway, as in they were physically IN our driveway. The US Government does NOT pay for our driveway...and they are NOT allowed to park on private property, especially where they are blocking our access to the public streets..... It is NOT our job to call the police every five minutes to deal with these guys, nor is it the police's job to have to baby-sit. Somewhere, somehow, these jerks who stand around and do nothing often for hours on end and get PAID for doing it, should be held accountable.

These are OUR tax dollars at work."

We deserve better in Haverford, don't you all think?