2018-2023 Wilmette vs.  NU Arena Noise

For 1970's to 2021 information re. Wilmette issues vis a vis NU:

Wilmette Impact - Index 

Wilmette residents close to the Arena (WRA) have communicated to NU their complaints about the chillers noise since 2018, to no avail.

2016-19 Wilmette: Noise & Traffic  

Below see the history of the Welsh Ryan chillers noise issue, as provided by Wilmette resident Mike Miller. The noise from the Welsh Arena's chillers has not abated, since 2018.

Below see the May and June 2021 emails between the Wilmette residents and Dave Davis, re. the same Arena noise issue.  And further below the latest email in October 2021 pointing out the issue has NOT been resolved

Date: May 20, 2021, 7:45 PM

From: Mike Miller To: Dave Davis

Dave Davis,

One of my neighbors and I have both emailed you now twice this week without a response regarding the whining sound emitting still from the Welsh Ryan Arena chillers that were installed without a sound dampening wall. In October of last year we were informed by you that adjustments were being made, but both my neighbor and I emailed you this week complaining that once again we were dealing with the terrible whining caused by the lack of sound dampening and you have yet to respond.

Today is Thursday, May 20 and right now at 7:40 p.m. the whining sound is still prevalent. The agreement between NU and the neighborhood initially was that these would be shut down at 7:00 p.m. so that we could have an evening outside, then be turned back on at 8:00 a.m. Someone has set these to turn on incorrectly this year and this needs to be changed now - I expect those of us directly in the line of sight for the sound will not be sleeping well tonight.

Please respond to the neighbors who are willing to include their emails so that we can let our neighbors not on the list what is going on:

1. Can we get them off again at 7:00 p.m.?

2. What was the change that was supposed to have happened last year? We are still dealing with the sound. There is one possibility that I hear - the whining is intermittent now instead of on all the time without ceasing. But it is still early in the season and we are dealing with it now - it will only get worse later. 

Please tell us what is happening to change this for the neighbors.

Thank you, Mike Miller

Date: May 20,2021

From: Celene Peurye-Hissong

The thing is we should not have to here this at all, not even from 8am to 7pm. When will Northwestern ever do anything to respect the neighbors?

Celene Peurye-Hissong

Date:  May 20, 2021 

From: Dennis McBride To: Dave Davis 

Subject: Re: Welsh Ryan Chiller noise, 2021 - PLEASE RESPOND

Our concerns and pleas have gone un answered. Northwestern hired Walsh Construction to do millions of dollars of rework to the new facility due to issues they are having with the newly renovated building. But did not include any work to fix the noise issue with the chillers. 

Date: May 20, 2021 

From: Celene Peurye-Hissong

The thing is we should not have to hear this at all, not even from 8am to 7pm. When will Northwestern ever do anything to respect the neighbors?

Date: 5/21/21 

From:  Dave Davis  To: Wilmette Ryan Arena neighbors

Dear WRA neighbors,

I assure you that your concerns have not gone unnoticed. I am looking into the set-back schedule and will respond when I have relevant information to share with the group. However, as a reminder, we did install additional sound barrier panels in 2019, and according to the acoustical surveys that we conducted, the sound emitted from the mechanical equipment was compliant with the City of Evanston and Village of Wilmette noise ordinances. Additionally, City of Evanston staff performed their own sound readings and the results did not exceed the limit set in the City code.  

We are sincere in our efforts to be good neighbors and will continue working with you to target and reduce the whining sound you continue to hear. I should have an update for you soon.

I hope you all are continuing to take care of yourselves.  

Best,

Dave D. Davis

Date: June 17, 2021

From: Mike Miller To: Dave Davis

Dave Davis,

Well, that's been an exercise in patience when you said you would have an update for us "soon".  Would it be possible to just reply to this email today and let us know any relevant information, if any, you have to share since this email from May 21?

Date: June 17, 2019

From: Dave Davis To: Mike Miller & WRA

Dear Mike,

We are in the construction phase of the Welsh-Ryan Arena Court Replacement project, and the installation of a new wood athletic court floor is currently in progress. This work will continue for the next two months and is scheduled for completion in August. The floor installation requires continuous operation of the mechanical system to control temperature and humidity levels until the wood court work is completed. Fortunately, we do not plan for or expect additional cooling requirements for the wood floor beyond this year.

During this time, NU Facilities engineers and technicians will be monitoring controls settings to optimize efficient operation of the HVAC equipment. Additionally, we have informed our crews of your concerns and requested that they double-check the settings and trend logs to see if any additional adjustments could be made to mitigate the noise.

Thanks again for your patience with this issue. I will continue to provide updates as I learn more.

Take good care,  

Dave D. Davis

Date: June 18, 2021

From: Mike Miller To: Dave Davis

Dave,

I have an email from NU from 2020, 2019 and 2018 giving the reason that the noise still persists as "the new wood floors are being installed." 2018 makes sense as they were new and the emails state that the 2020 reinstall was due to water damage. Are new floors installed every year?

So I think what you're saying is that we will continue to hear this noise at various levels 24 hours a day for the next 2.5 months rather than turned down/off at 7:00 p.m. and on again at 7:00 a.m.?

Is there someone who is responsible for the system who I could be in touch with to provide information about the whining noise at different times of the day?

It would be super nice to get a response to this sooner than 2.5 weeks from now.

Date: June 18, 2021 

From Dennis McBride To: Dave Davis

So you are essentially doing nothing constructive to abate the noise and you expect us to deal with it 24/7 this summer. 

I know our patience is exhausted. 

A rough guess is NU us spent over $110M on Welsh Ryan and refuses to spend another very small amount to put a noise trapping enclosure around the equipment. 

NU is simply a bad neighbor. There is no other way to describe this situation. 

Date: June 18, 2021 

From: Celene Peurye-Hissong  To: Mike Miller & WRA

Hi Mike and Dennis,

As you have pointed out, Dave’s reply for NU is pure BS. They have no intention of doing anything about it (never have) and do not care at all about the neighbors. They will continue to spend many millions on themselves but nothing to mitigate the noise at a modest cost, as Dennis notes. You have been polite and patient for an inordinate amount of time.

The only thing that has a small chance of working is getting widespread publicity of their callous treatment. Lots of social media, tweeting, recording the sound and posting on Instagram, FaceBook, Tik Toc, often gets picked up by mainstream media. It was successful getting the awful Director of Athletics out. I say go for it.

Just one opinion, Celene

Evanston resident and editor of Spotlight responds to WRA emails:

Date: June 18, 2021

From: Yvi Russell To: Mike Miller & WRA

Thank you for appraising me of the on-going situation.

Here are some enlightening comments from two Evanston aldermen at the August 28th 2019 Planning & Developing Committee meeting. Wilson voted later for NU to introduce the pro-sport & commercial events into the District U2, Suffredin voted against.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5op-hsChP8&feature=youtu.be

1:11:56 [Wilson entire speech start]

Wilson: …the fundamental question is whether or not we believe Northwestern. So, Northwestern says something, but it’s a question whether we believe them as opposed to whether or not they have enumerated whether they will meet the standards or not.

1:19:46 [Suffredin entire speech start]

Suffredin: … it’s two years of their [residents] lives that we’re playing with. … I mean, to see two representatives from Northwestern, five speakers in favor… and then they say: well, you know we’ll just trust Northwestern, when they have proven themselves to be untrustworthy consistently, is really disheartening because this town can be so much better than it is. And it’s our fault up here a lot of the time, and right now just rolling over for Northwestern, a university that does not make the same level of contribution to the community that hosts it as other universities in their class it’s just very disheartening.  I’m not I’m not even surprised. I guess that’s what the most disappointing thing is, that we, they’re going to go back, what was the term Dave, townies? Is that what President Schapiro called us at the Wilson Club? They are going to go back and say, you dumb townies, just give us whatever we want, and that’s what’s going to happen here unless somebody changes their vote.

P.S. The renovation of the Arena a few years back, also was decided without any traffic and parking studies or adequate (if any) impact studies re. noise issues.

Date:  June 22, 2021

From: Dennis McBride To: Dave Davis

Mr. Davis,

You have previously mentioned that NU and Evanston conducted sound readings. Is it possible to obtain a copy of those findings or reports? I would be happy to pay for any reproduction costs. Please let me know.

Sincerely, 

Dennis McBride

Mike Miller’s summer 2021 update re. Arena chillers’ noise issues

June, 2021 meeting with Dave Davis

I met with Dave Davis in his office in the early summer to discuss progress. My taka away from this meeting was that, according to him, this issue was “well known high up” in Northwestern, that he indeed was being advised by a legal team that advises NU on community issues, that either Athletics or Facilities would have to pay for the sound mitigation (or both) and that Allan Darrow (Facilities) would be one of the people who would have to approve this. Finally, he claimed that they were hesitant to spend the money because they were not sure where the sound was coming from and if the mitigation would stop it.

I don't believe that last bit. He sent us and Revelle and email at the end of summer in 2020 saying that Evan Goldstein had “discovered the source of the noise” and was doing various things to stop it.

I offered to meet with facilities managers/workers/whoever was in charge at the site to determine what was causing the sound. I'm in music and have ears that probably can detect this up close. He said he would arrange a meeting before July 4, then stopped responding to emails for 5 weeks.

Near the middle of August I emailed him asking if we were done communicating on this, given the long silence and he asked if it would be possible to meet on Zoom instead. This implied he had forgotten that we were to meet at the site listening to different settings. I asked him not to plan a meeting just so NU could say that they had one, but that I was only interested in a true effort. He never responded.

June, 2021 meeting with Eleanor Revelle

Revelle came to my house in June and was able to hear the sound quite strongly and seemed surprised by it. She said she would see if she could arrange a meeting with someone from NU and someone from Evanston to discuss this. With some prodding she ended up arranging for the City Manager, Erika Storlie and a VP from NU. That planning happened just a week before she put in her resignation for October, so I'm not sure if that will happen.

August, 2021 meeting with Michael Braiman, Wilmette City Manager and John Adler, Wilmette Community Development Director and neighbor Sarina McBride

The take away from this meeting was:

• Wilmette has no jurisdiction over NU, so meeting and encouragement is all they can do

• Michael would reach out to Erika Storlie (Evanston City Manager) to see what she could do

• They both were unaware that there was an issue still, meaning I had forgotten to include them on the email list

Again, Erika resigning may have put this on hold.

July, 2021 meeting with Nick Cummings

I met with Nick Cummings, Corporation Counsel for Evanston, to discuss the clause in the City Code below. I asked who would be responsible for enforcing this clause and he said ultimately it would be the city code inspectors. Someone would have to log a 311 noise complaint, that would be investigated, then NU would be notified. A number of these would have to happen before the instigators would be fined.

I said I didn't think the inspectors would do this, given that it is NU and not an individual, and who was in charge of the inspectors? This would be Johanna Nyden, director of Community Development. I asked him to meet with her to discuss this. He told me after their meeting regarding the clause below:

I spoke with Johanna. The Code you and I discussed (8-3-1(a)) is particularly difficult to enforce. As of now, there is not much under the Code the City can do to force Northwestern to do anything. It would appear they would have to voluntarily work with residents.

I asked if the clause was not enforceable as written and he replied, “The Code is enforceable; however, it's problematic because it is very subjective.  The Code should be written so that it can be enforced objectively.”

City of Evanston Code

4-9-2. - AMENDMENTS.

The following sections of the International Residential Code are hereby amended to read as follows:

Section M1309

Noise Limitations

M1309.1 Noise Limitations: Noise levels for equipment and appliances shall not exceed 55 dBA SPL (Decibels, A-weighted, Sound Pressure Level) as averaged over any 15 minute period, and as measured at the property line between the said adjacent structures if a property line separates the parcels.

8-3-1. - ENUMERATION OF PARTICULAR NUISANCES.

In addition to those things which are elsewhere, by this Code, declared to be and constitute nuisances, the presence of the following within the City is declared to be detrimental to the public health, safety, and welfare and constitutes a nuisance:

(A) Sounds, animals, or things which interfere with the peace or comfort or disturb the quiet enjoyment of any person in the City;...

8-3-3. - ENUMERATION NOT EXCLUSIVE.

The various nuisances described and enumerated in this Chapter shall not be deemed to be exclusive, but shall be in addition to all other nuisances described and prohibited by this Code.

2023: NU's inability to fix the Welsh Ryan Arena chillers sound issues

4/23/23 1:04 PM, D Thiersch to Mike Miller

Was the problem with the chiller noise ever resolved? Was it still a problem last summer? 

4/23/2023 at 1:22 PM Mike Miller to D Thiersch

No, it is not resolved. They supposedly did something last autumn, then when I asked this year when a neighbor heard the noise Dave Davis gave us this timeline [Note that they already did some sort of "soft wrap" about 3 years ago]

4/16/2023 Dave Davis to Mike Miller

With the warm months approaching, I wanted to provide you with an update on the chiller sound attenuation improvement project.

As you know, last summer, we worked with a third-party engineering consultant to measure and analyze the chiller noise. Based on those findings, we identified the primary noise sources and determined recommendations for mitigating the noise. The following information provides an update on the key factors involved with the recommended work.

Scope of Work

Turn-key design and installation of new sound attenuation materials:

• Soft wrap sound insulation on chiller components

• Soft wrap sound insulation on exposed piping between the chillers and arena

Anticipated Timeline

• 1-2 weeks – NU Approval/Contract/PO

• 2-3 weeks – Field Verification Survey

• 7-8 weeks – Engineering & Shop Drawings/Fabrication

• 2-3 weeks – Installation

• Anticipated Completion – May 26th – June 23rd.

It’s important to note that these improvements will reduce the chiller noise but NOT eliminate the sound in its entirety. Even though the sound attenuation will provide noticeable relief, we are unable to forecast how the sound experienced by some neighbors will be perceived. We can only say that we are reducing the noise as promised, which should result in a better overall experience for our neighbors.