A noise so loud you can’t even hear yourself think. That’s how a Hillsborough County community is describing an airboat they claim is making almost daily runs too close to their water-front homes. They’re now demanding some peace and quiet.
Bayport neighbors are at their wits end.
“It’s so loud it sounds like you have a motorcycle driving past your patio," said neighbor Montie Miller.
Angry residents filling up the neighborhood social media app, Nextdoor, with complaints all about the noise.
"It’s 9 o’clock in the morning sometimes, 10 o’clock, 11 o’clock...," said Miller.
A neighbor sending us pictures they snapped of the source. An airboat. One they believe belongs to a local tour company.
“It'’s so loud you just have to shut your doors," said Miller.
Neighbors like him are calling, emailing, even sending letters to law enforcement and the airboat business. They're demanding something be done about the noise. Every attempt, they say, met without much of an answer.
So, ABC Action News gave them a call. The owner of the company won’t go on camera but tells us he’s heard the complaints.
“I don’t hold anything against him but it’s annoying," said neighbor Greta Tagliavia.
The tour company owner says he’s not the only one out on the waters and tells us he's not going anywhere. He says that's because he's following the law.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and Tampa Police Department agree. They said he’s met all necessary guidelines including having a muffler and he’s not breaking any law. These neighbors, however, insist it goes beyond the rule book.
“Common decency, common courtesy to everybody around you is important," said Tagliavia.
Others wishing he'd take the noise elsewhere.
"Please go somewhere else, there’s a whole bay up and down the coast," said Miller
Meanwhile, law enforcement stress air boats are traditionally loud and sometimes that’s the cost of living by a public waterway.
