‘Run amok’

Long-running problems with excessive noise emanating from a Baekeland Avenue business boiled over on Tuesday, April 22 as two residents pointedly ripped the municipality’s ineffectiveness in quelling the disturbance.

Scrutiny of the alleged offender – Hikae Infotech – may be ratcheting up beyond noise, based on an April 15 site inspection conducted by Middlesex County officials. The inspection report notes that fire code offenses were observed and the state Department of Environmental Protection will followup for “potential solid and hazardous waste violations.”

“The place is run amok and nothing is being done about it,” Decatur Avenue resident Paul Maxcy, told Mayor Jack Mikolajczyk and Middlesex Borough Council members.

Maxcy has visited the Hikae site, been in contact with county environmental officials, and obtained inspection-related records through an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request. Environmental problems at the business, he added, are “much bigger” than just noise violations.

Some of the OPRA-obtained documents pertain to a Dec. 3, 2023 incident in which gallons of diesel fuel and motor oil spilled out of Hikae and into the nearby waterway. A county report chronicles how borough first-responders descended on the Hikae site due to a reported “large sheen” in the waterway. An environmental cleanup ensued.

Noise problems, however, drew most fire at the April 22 council session. “I sleep literally with earplugs,” Maxcy said at one point.

Borough resident Kevin Redzinski also panned the borough’s past inability to deal with Hikae-generated noise. Redzinski spent an emotional several minutes addressing the governing body, pledging to bring other affected residents to a future session, if necessary, to spur action on the issue.

“The noise is ongoing…it’s insane,” he said. “This isn’t like there’s a nuisance sort of noise. This, at its worst, sounds like metal raining down from the second story.”

Redzinski engaged in a give-and-take with Mikolajczyk, asserting he’s sought to have noise problems addressed for a year and that code enforcement has been lax. Later in the meeting, the council promoted current part-time Zoning Officer Tyler Gronau to full-time director of zoning and code enforcement, effective Sept. 2.

Gronau’s promotion to the $75,000-per-year position “absolutely defies logic,” Redzinski told the mayor.

Mikolajczyk said the Hikae case has “gone past” typical code enforcement. The borough is crafting an ordinance modeled after state guidelines for investigating noise complaints, he said, and has sought involvement by county agencies.

Mikolajczyk’s suggestion that Redzinski give the borough two more months to get an ordinance in place and a better handle on the situation resulted in verbal fireworks.

“The noise is still happening,” Redzinski replied. “I’m not going to sit on my hands and wait another two months.”

“I’m not going to dispute that it’s gone on way too long,” the mayor answered. “We tried other routes to get this resolved. Obviously, it’s not working.”

Maxcy urged the council to adopt an ordinance restricting operating hours in the borough’s entire industrial zone. If a business wanted to operate outside the prescribed hours, it would need a variance.

Referring to his communications with county officials, own observations, and reports he has viewed, Maxcy told the governing body, “I don’t know if you guys are fully aware of the gravity of the situation.”

Motor oil and diesel fuel from the Hikae site were observed washing into a drainage basin, Maxcy said. Hydrocarbons and cyanide are likely being released into the air there, he said, according to a county report. Maxcy invited borough officials to research the hazards connected to an aluminum smelting business such as Hikae.

Smelting, the process of extracting metal from ore, poses significant health and environmental hazards, including respiratory issues, heavy metal poisoning, and environmental degradation. These hazards stem from toxic fumes, dust, and the release of harmful metals and gases into the air and water. 

Maxcy was skeptical that the noise ordinance mentioned by Mikolajczyk would head-off sound disturbances. 

County officials will take a decibel reading from a residential property but it must be scheduled ahead of time, Maxcy said. A county noise hotline does not get an immediate response after 4:30 p.m. Maxcy noted he’s called local police with industrial noise complaints 12 times in the past four months, all after 11 p.m.

Maxcy reiterated that borough officials should clamp down on the entire industrial zone. “Don’t just fixate on the number one offender,” he said, adding, “The entire zone keeps everyone in the area up every single night.”

Mikolajczyk asked Maxcy for the most recent reports he has obtained and said borough officials would “try to do the right thing.” But the exchange between the two ended on a testy note, with Maxcy still pressing for answers and the mayor telling him to conclude his comments and return to his seat.

Maxcy shared the OPRA-obtained records with Inside – Middlesex. They include multiple county inspection reports dating back for years that show problems at the Hikae site.

Among the reported incidents:

A December 2023 county inspection said that Hikae’s smelting produces alloys for car manufacturing. Solid waste officials were notified because of concerns about aluminum byproduct as “rims and tires were stored in excess on the property.” Smelting byproducts were observed on site in unmarked containers.

The same report notes that a building at the site was condemned as being an unsafe structure on Dec. 4, 2023.

A handwritten report on March 25, 2021 said county health officials were referred to the Hikae site by the county’s Hazardous Materials Unit due to odors. “Hazmat and fire department did a full investigation and provided their full reports. They told us not to enter the facility for safety reasons. Hazmat noticed several violations and the site was forced to conduct a cleanup.”

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