Inside the war over leaf blowers tearing millionaire Hamptons homeowners apart

Gail Pellet and her husband, Stephan Van Dam. "We all became driven insane by this noise," Pellet says. Jeremy Garretson for BI When Charles Leak and his wife purchased his home in East Hampton , they thought they'd found an oasis of quiet. Far away from their Tribeca apartment in the Near Northwest Woods, a neighborhood known for its secluded calm, their contemporary saltbox style sits back on a one-acre lot, surrounded by Japanese cedars and bamboo. About five years after he moved in, the leaf blower roars started. "You know what a chainsaw sounds like? These are louder. Usually, there are multiple. It becomes a symphony," Leak, who has worked as a contractor and a fine artist, tells me. "It's quieter in the city."