The Jefferson city council tabled the first reading of a proposed noise ordinance at its June 9 meeting, before hearing comments about the ordinance from any of the 30 community members who attended the meeting.
Mayor Matt Gordon said council members had heard many complaints about the ordinance, and he wanted to take some time to “clear up fact from fiction.” He said several times during the meeting an article posted on Greene County News Online about the ordinance included “misinformation.” He did not say what the misinformation was, except to clarify that normal conversation measures at 60 decibels from 3 feet away. The GCNO article included information from the CDC, which did not include a distance.
For the sake of enforcement, sound levels would be checked from a property line. “I think you’d have to get pretty loud before your neighbors are going to call and complain,” he said.
Gordon also implied the article should have included the full 6-page ordinance.
“We’re not going to be driving around looking for motorcycles or looking for loud exhausts or looking for people enjoying themselves. That’s not even close to what this is for,” Gordon said. The ordinance is intended as “a tool for if we do have complaints.”
He said there is currently nothing the police can do in response to a noise complaint except to ask the person making the noise to stop.
Persons who spoke at the meeting had a few specific concerns: the sound of snow removal equipment is an exception only between 6 am and 10 pm, although residents sometimes clear their own driveways earlier, before doing to work; how officers would handle repeated complaints of loud children; and whether the sound of engine testing and repair should be an exception at any time of the day. That activity would be allowed from 7 am to 9 pm under the ordinance.
The council’s police committee, composed of Gordon and Pat Zmolek, will work with police chief Mark Clouse to come up with “something acceptable,” Gordon said, and then hold the three readings needed prior to adoption. Gordon said the revised ordinance will be posted on the city website before a first reading is held.
Clouse said the noise levels named in the ordinance are “reasonable.” Gordon said the committee would revisit those levels and perhaps move the time the lower levels go into effect to later in the day, perhaps 10 pm. He added that the section of the ordinance requiring permits for events that have the potential to create a noise disturbance will also be looked at.
