'Like a car alarm': Neighbors fed up with constant, annoying noise

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — There is a new complaint against the Atlanta VA Medical Center in DeKalb County, and this time it involves a noise so loud, people can hear it from miles away.

People in the Clairmont Heights neighborhood told Channel 2's Justin Wilfon they can't stand it anymore.

“It sounds like someone is using a hand sander, an electric sander in my basement,” neighbor Hazel Wagner said.

“At first, it almost sounds like a car alarm a few blocks away or somebody’s running a leaf blower,” said neighbor Nancy Ciliax.

People who live the quaint Decatur neighborhood told Wilfon that they first heard that annoying, humming sound four months ago and have heard it almost every day since.

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“When I sit outside and can hear it, I actually get a headache,” Wagner said.

“It gives you a headache because it’s constant,” Ciliax said.

The neighbors went to work to find out where it was coming from. It turns out it was coming the Atlanta VA Medical Center.

The VA told Wilfon that noise is from a piece of machinery related to ongoing upgrades at the hospital.

“They need to find some way to muffle the sound,” Wagner said.

A spokesperson promised Wilfon that a fix was in the works. The agency sent him a statement saying:

“We apologize to our neighbors for any inconvenience this construction may cause, and in an effort to reduce construction-related noise, we will be installing a new volume reducing compressor this fall.”

But neighbors say they’ve already heard enough.

“They need to do something for the neighbors so they don’t constantly hear that noise,” Ciliax said.

Some of the neighbors who have complained about the noise live almost a mile away from the hospital.

Cox Media Group