The task force created to assess Bethlehem’s need for a noise ordinance unanimously voted to recommend a new noise law to the town board. The official recommendation is expected to be on the Wednesday, July 23, town board meeting agenda.
The Town Board created the task force on Sept. 9 to complete an overview of the community’s needs, to research the different aspects of a possible noise ordinance, and then, after public review, provide the Town Board with a proposed draft noise ordinance.
Councilman Sam Messina is the town board’s liaison for the task force, which also included community representatives Jennifer DeFranco and Robert Jasinski; Bethlehem Deputy Police Chief Tim Beebe; and town code enforcer, Gil Boucher.
In a Town Hall meeting on Thursday, May 29, led by the task force, dozens of people listened and gave feedback on the details of a possible town ordinance. Only two residents who attended the meeting said they were opposed to the town adopting a new noise law.
Messina said the task force has received 16 official comments on the records as well as at least 40 e-mails and letters.
Almost all of those we’re supportive of the noise ordinance, he added. `Me feeling is that there is nothing left to do but to recommend this to the town board.`
Only two residents out of a crowd of three in attendance spoke at the task forces Tuesday, July 15, meeting, where it voted to recommend the noise ordinance at the town board’s next public meeting.
One resident spoke in favor of a new noise law and one spoke against it.
`All we’re doing at this stage is saying to the town board that we have enough information, enough basis, to pretty clearly recommend that there really is no logical choice but to draft an ordinance,` Messina said at the meeting. `All of the public testimony that we received in our public meeting, save for one or two comments, were supportive of the noise ordinance, and the one or two comments out of roughly 16 were not even negative, they were more for clarification.`
Messina and Boucher said it would take a minimum of five to seven month to actually draft up a town noise law, which would then be reviewed by the public and by the town board before a vote was taken on it.
Jasinski said he wanted to make sure the town’s code enforcers and police wouldn’t over step their enforcement responsibilities with the new law.
`I’m looking at safety regulations,` Jasinski said. `I don’t want to see another law that’s going to curtail the rights of landowners to enjoy the freedom that this country does offer`
Messina responded by saying the law would be balanced and fair and would not be overly regulative in policy.
`We’re all with you on that,` he concluded.
Read the complete story in the July 23 print edition of The Spotlight.“