COFIELD, N.C. (WAVY) – Sometimes it sounds like a siren.

Other times, it’s a constant hum.

Scarlett Cherry, who lives on a farm in Cofield, North Carolina in Hertford County, has been documenting the noise she says is coming from the nearby Perdue Agribusiness Plant.

“My head hurts ’cause the walls be shaking during the day,” Cherry said. “Some mornings I come out here and I’m like, ‘Oh my God.'”

Cherry, who works from home, lives just a stone’s throw from the plant.

“I’m trying to work,” Cherry said. “It’s all this noise. It’s all day, then when you’re done working, you’re trying to relax, watch TV, eat dinner. It’s still going.”

Her family has lived on the neighboring farmland since the 1930s. It was here with her horse, Double Time, that Cherry had planned to start an equestrian training facility.

She had cleared off a couple of acres of land where she had planned to put a stable with an apartment on top so they could live there, and they were going to add a training arena.

But in recent years, she said the noise from the nearby Perdue plant has all-but-leveled her American dream.

“You just can’t have a conversation ’cause the trucks are coming constantly too,” Cherry said over the noise from a truck driving down the road by her property.

For the past three years, Cherry has made some noise of her own.

She has written letters to state and local officials, showing up to speak at Cofield town council meetings and talking with Perdue officials to try and come up with a solution.

She pointed to one such email between her and Perdue’s mill manager telling her they have “diligently worked to identify any possible loud noises and made every reasonable effort to accommodate your request.”

Perdue issued a similar statement to 10 On Your Side, which reads, in part:

“Perdue has been operating in Hertford County for 47 years, and until now, we have not had any noise complaints. … After having a third party conduct a sound level measurement of our facility using the sound level meters specified by the ordinance, we are confident that our facility is not exceeding the maximum sound levels permitted by the ordinance.”

After repeatedly voicing her concerns to the Cofield town council, town leaders launched its own investigation. 10 On Your Side got a copy of the investigation, showing town Mayor June Wynn asking Perdue’s managers to “provide me with a feasible solution to this ongoing issue.”

Perdue responded by saying they had gone as far as visiting Cherry’s home to inspect the noise themselves. They said they are operating their facility within Hertford County’s noise ordinance.

“Now we have new noises, so my thing was, can you put in some sound barriers, or have a noise ordinance, maybe, where we have some quiet hours,” Cherry said. “They run 24/7, so they weren’t willing to do that.”

The town’s investigation ended with it adopting the county’s noise ordinance as its own, which won’t force Perdue to change anything. It gives little hope for Cherry and Double Time, who she lovingly calls D.T.

Wynn declined an interview with 10 On Your Side. Perdue officials also denied a 10 On Your Side request to come onsite to view some of the changes the company has made in response to Cherry’s complaints.

Company officials, in emails sent to Cherry, said some of the noise could be coming from other nearby facilities, not necessarily the Perdue plant.

“I worry about him being out here,” Cherry said. “It hurts my heart. It’s just too loud – too loud to build a legacy here.”