Lenox resident asks council to adopt ordinance restricting idling refrigerated trucks

John Cassidy, who gave his address as 416 South Ash Street, asked the Lenox City Council to adopt an ordinance allowing police to address idling refrigerated trucks within city limits.

Cassidy told the council that police can currently ask a truck operator to move only if the operator is present, and that most trucks “remain” idling when drivers are not at the vehicle. He said neighborhood complaints date to July 15, 2021, and that a follow-up meeting after a July 20, 2021 council session led a nearby business, Total Stop, to add concrete to its parking lot and post signage. Those measures reduced calls for a time, Cassidy said, but trucks have recently begun idling again overnight and for hours at a time.

"Trucks idling or running reefers shouldn't be allowed to run extended hours, overnights, or weekends anywhere within the city limits," Cassidy said. "We have no problems leaving trucks parking there. We have a problem with them running." He asked the council to draft an ordinance that would allow police to act when refrigerated trucks run for extended periods in residential areas.

Cassidy said he and other residents have contacted police three or four times in the past few weeks; on those calls officers found no drivers in the vehicles. He asked the council to clarify whether continued idling is an activity central to a truck stop's business and said residents bought homes without expecting to live next to a truck stop that runs reefers overnight.

Council members did not take immediate action on a new ordinance during the meeting. The matter was heard during the public-comment portion of the agenda and was not on the council's formal agenda that night. Council members asked clarifying questions and acknowledged the request; no formal vote on drafting an ordinance was recorded.