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 Town Board meeting agenda in August.
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, a few dozen 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, as well as at least 40 e-mails and letters.
Almost all of those were supportive of the noise ordinance, he said. `My 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 force’s 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.
Elissa Zwiebach said she was against a town noise law and that the task force should take the different styles of housing throughout Bethlehem into account.
`I think there’s really a fine line between where you’re helping people and where you’re limiting people’s lives. It’s [the proposal] something that’s regulating people’s lives,` Zwieback said at the meeting. `Any kind of multiple dwelling, because of however it was constructed, there is going to be a certain amount of noise.`
Answering her concerns, Messina assured her that `nothing we can do will make a noise-free Bethlehem, nor is that our intention.`
Beverly Goodfellow said she favors a noise ordinance because people `need to be considerate,` and she cited a recent complaint she made with the town over a loud ice cream truck.
`I’ve gone out and gotten ice cream for my kids when they were young, but it doesn’t have to be at that level,` Goodfellow said. `I just feel like my space was being invaded. If you’re traveling around, you don’t need it to be that loud because the blocks are so small.`
Goodfellow told the task force that she understands people have a right to do business, but that she heard the ice cream truck from five blocks away, and with a noise ordinance in place, the sound level could have been measured.
During the May meeting nearly all of the residents spoke in favor of the noise law and some cited severe cases of `noise harassment,` that left them will no alternative but to call the police.
Messina reminded the attendees that the noise law recommendation was only the first step in a long and involved process and that everyone who wants to speak on the issue will be given ample opportunity to do so.
`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.
Boucher, the town’s code enforcer, said Bethlehem would most likely only need two devices to measure noise levels in decibels; one for the police and one for code enforcement.
He said the ones being looked at are in the $500 to $1,000 range for each one, which he described as a very reasonable price.
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, echoing some of Zwiebach’s sentiments.
`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, adding that the town seems very much in favor of a noise ordinance so long as it is properly discussed and clearly laid out.
`The public has really rallied around this and made it their own,` Messina said. `There ought to be no surprise where my vote will be.`
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