STRONG — Noise from a mill in the center of town has some residents considering an ordinance as a way to find peace.

The Geneva Wood Products pellet mill sits at the center of town. Trucks bring logs to a large chipper that grinds them. The chips are dried, formed into pellets, bagged, and loaded onto trucks for delivery to customers. The mill also operates equipment with backup beepers required by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

On Tuesday, Church Hill Road resident Jeff O’Donnell presented selectmen with 47 signatures he collected from residents who want the mill owners to address what they considered excessive noise from the wood chipper and equipment in the log yard. Homeowners are losing sleep and have to wear earplugs or move bedrooms to another part of the house, he said. An ordinance could address such problems before they began.

“I realize Geneva Wood Products may be grandfathered in, but I’d like to see if we could have some meetings so we can get some predictability from them,” he said. “If someone has guests from out of town, the chipper won’t start ripping up trees in the middle of the afternoon on a weekend.”

Others did not share his opinion that an ordinance would help.

“I sympathize with you, Jeff, but the reason that noise is telescoping that way is because we haven’t managed the forestry, and we’ve cut every blasted tree,” Mike Pond said. “When the trees grow back, we’ll have a buffer again.”

Pond suggested residents should avoid developing ordinances as a reaction to their dissatisfaction with a business’ operating practices. Voters historically have rejected any zoning proposals, and he didn’t want businesses to go elsewhere because of restrictive business mandates.

Resident Loretta Deming said the mill brought tax revenues and jobs, and residents should remember that the town once thrived on the wood products industry.

“We had four mills going at one time, and we had a good economy,” Deming said. “I think we have to be careful we don’t discourage businesses from moving in.”

Deming said people were desperate for employment, and the mill was a large taxpayer in a town which had lost all of its industry.

The mill’s operations manager, Jeff Allen, said he had agreed not to operate the chipper after 4 p.m. during the week or on Saturday and Sunday, but protesters said that had not happened. Allen suggested meeting with O’Donnell and the board to start discussions about noise abatement options.

“This doesn’t have to be a battle,” Allen said. “This town was built around the mills, and when we’re gone, we’ll be leaving our kids to live with these ordinances.”