County commissioners listen to testimony during their legislative meeting on May 21, 2019.
In a bid to help the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office address complaints about loud music and other noise disturbances, the Lewis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office on Tuesday briefed the Lewis County Board of Commissioners on a new ordinance that will soon be up for approval by the commissioners.
Senior Civil Deputy Cullen Gatten of the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office was on hand at a Tuesday afternoon conference to clue in Lewis County Commissioners on a new set of suggested parameters to combat high noise levels without asking deputies to produce decibel readings.
“So, the noise would have to be heard from the public roadway or from an adjacent property by the sheriff,” explained Gatten. “Obviously, if the complainant said he heard it from a public roadway, then the sheriff’s office could cite them for that. Someone would have to come in and actually testify to enforce that piece. There is a clause in there that wouldn’t require a decibel reading.”
The new suggested ordinance, he noted, was drawn from policies in other counties.
During an early July roundtable with Lewis County Commissioners, Sheriff Rob Snaza proposed changes to the noise nuisance ordinance, saying his officers were able to dole out fines to owners of barking dogs, but couldn’t cite noisy neighbors.
“I think we can use more simplicity,” he said at the July meeting. “If you can hear this music or obnoxious noise at a certain time, then we start looking at enforcing some type of ordinance. … Common sense, we should be able to make a decision based on how far down the road is the officer parked, can you hear the noise — we give warnings, but we should have leverage where we can actually do something where you’re going to get a citation.”
While introducing the draft ordinance, Gatten clarified that his department generated the proposed measure with the kind of information to help officers “know how to enforce it,” including a set of guidelines.
Commissioner Bobby Jackson endorsed the ordinance by calling it a “strong” solution.
Gatten recommended that all three commissioners submit their comments by next week in order for his office to draft the official ordinance in a timely fashion.
All parties agreed to schedule a Dec. 9 public hearing for approval of the noise ordinance.
