By STEPHEN SEITZ
Special to the Eagle Times
SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — Springfield’s board of selectmen unveiled a proposed noise ordinance at its regular meeting Monday night.
“I talked about this with the police chief,” Selectman Walter Martone said. “Such an ordinance would provide good tools for police officers to make enforcement easier. The officer isn’t there to write a ticket. This gives him a chance to work it out.”
Currently, the town’s noise ordinance is a couple of vague sentences in the zoning code, according to town attorney Stephen Ankuda. A noise ordinance would impose civil penalties, like a fine or a ticket. Under the current regulations, some violators could find themselves in court.
“For a civil violation, you don’t have to have beyond a reasonable doubt,” Ankuda said. “It’s based more on how people with reasonable sensitivity might view the violation. It’s really a tool to allow police to deal with neighborhood noise.”
As drafted, the ordinance deals specifically with such potential offenders as loud radios, defective vehicles, loudspeakers and construction noise, among others. Violators could be fined as much as $500.
“We don’t want the ordinance to be overly burdensome,” Martone said. “We don’t want it to quash public events or inhibit economic development.”
Selectman Michael Martin said he asked the police department for statistics. Last year, he said, police recorded 95 noise complaints. Martin also noted that 32 of the incidents concentrated on seven sites throughout town, with 10 coming from a rural mobile home park.
“The rest were mostly single incidents,” he said. “I would like to see the chief’s assessment of this.”
Springfield resident Richards Andrews said he favored a noise ordinance.
“All the power in a dispute is on one side without regulation,” he said.
The board decided to return the proposed ordinance back to the ordinance review committee for further refinements before going ahead.
In other action, the board decided to go ahead with the purchase of the dilapidated and collapsing building at 42-44 Union Street and then demolish it. The town has a purchase and sale agreement from Fannie Mae to pay $10,000. Town manager Tom Yennerell said demolition costs would be in the range of $2,000.
“You can get better prices for it than you can at the height of construction season,” he said.
The board meets next on Dec. 10.
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