Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal Carson City resident Marlene Foster is upset about truck traffic and industrial noise at her home after Source Interlink Companies opened a distribution center on Kansas Street. Foster, standing on a paint bucket to peer over the 6-foot wall, wants it increased.
A Carson City distribution business received restrictions on its business license after neighbors complained about noises caused by delivery trucks late at night and on the weekends.
Marlene Foster's bedroom window faces Source Interlink Companies' loading docks. The only thing between her bed and a FedEx ground transport semi is the window, an apple tree, a 6-foot brick wall and a couple hundred feet.
The Arizona Circle resident said Monday she is often woken up in the early morning by idling trucks and the clanging sounds of trash pickup.
"I know it's bad trying to fight them, but our quality of life has been changed because of this business," she said.
Foster stays at home and cares for her 89-year-old mother, Estelle Congestio. Foster's father built the spacious home on an 8,000-square-foot lot in 1976.
She said the delivery trucks started coming at all hours in late November.
"They shouldn't drive the trucks after midnight," Congestio said. "It wakes me up."
Source Interlink Companies opened the new magazine and book distribution center at 2025 Kansas St. in Carson City, inside the old Huck Fixtures building. Books and periodicals come through the Carson City distribution center and then are shipped all over the West.
The Florida-based company employs 65 people in the Carson City center, which opened in late 2004. A docking bay was constructed for the company's deliveries. Source Interlink is occupying about 50,000 square feet of the 100,000-square-foot building.
Carson City Supervisor Pete Livermore said he went to the Fosters' home to see if anything could be corrected.
"No doubt about it, it's a friction zone when you put residential adjacent to manufacturing, or this type of business," he said.
Livermore said Source Interlink's delivery hours are now limited to weekdays 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Drivers are also restricted from idling the trucks. He also advised the use of the loading doors on the east side of the building, rather than the south side, where the homes are.
"I think it'll settle the issue," Livermore said. "There is a new operator in there and the operator needs to be informed about the residents nearby. I don't think they'll be uncooperative. I think we got to give them the benefit of the doubt that they didn't understand the commotion they were causing."
Foster said she is supportive of the restrictions, even though she prefers no deliveries on weekends.
Kelly McEntire, a resident of Arizona Circle for about three years, said the area is zoned for light industrial, but she doesn't believe that means constant semi-truck traffic. She would like to see a sound wall put in.
"It's all hours of the day or night, and when the trucks back into the loading area it shakes our entire house," she said.
Source Interlink officials were unavailable for comment.
n Contact reporter Becky Bosshart at bbosshart@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.