When Barbara Dolensek sits on her porch to read the newspaper, she sometimes feels as though she's living in a war-torn country.
"When the bombing happens, you want to be indoors," she said. "My dogs get terrified."
Dolensek lives on City Island, a small neighborhood in the Bronx on Long Island Sound.
The explosions and gunfire she hears originate across the sound in Pelham Bay Park, where NYPD officers practice their marksmanship at a shooting range called Rodman's Neck.
"It's very unpleasant," Dolensek told NBC 4 New York. "And the guns are louder now."
She said she knows area residents who have had windows broken by the explosions. One resident fell off a ladder when it shook from a detonation, she said.
For several years, residents have asked the city to install sound barriers.
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An NYPD spokesperson said renovations are planned at the gun range. Improvements will include "ballistic sidewalls" and other changes to reduce the noise.
City Council member James Vacca said the noise problem has been studied for years, yet there's no allocation in the city budget to abate the noise.
"We got zero in the budget," he said. "No money, no allocation whatsoever and I'm furious and my neighborhood is furious."
