By Buffy Calvert
A standing-room-only crowd piled into the Town Hall on October 8th for Public Hearings on two proposed Town/Hamlet Ordinances. The first, which proposed “regulating unreasonable noise within the Town,” drew some strongly felt responses. The local law would exempt noises of all kinds from farms, schools, religious institutions and emergency vehicles. However, the bulk of the audience seemed concerned that the regulations would prohibit running their Harleys, chainsaws, snowmobiles, and cracking “normal” gun fire. A local contractor worried that his crew would be curtailed from revving up his generator, which, he admitted, “is noisy,” early on hot summer mornings.
On the other hand, neighbors of two camps bemoaned the distress that the loud-speaker announcements and music from the camps caused them. A spokesman from Camp Nubar defended their system: necessary for running the camp, it is in the process of being redesigned to lessen the noise level. He also commented that a similar ordinance had been ruled unconstitutional by the New York State Court of Appeals as too subjective to be enforceable. Who is the person of “normal sensitiveness?” “The cantankerous neighbor?” He pointed out that families who had lived next to the camp for its 45 year history had never complained. Another neighbor spoke eloquently about his concern that while he heard the sounds from Camp Nubar he also wanted the freedom to make noise at his own place. He pleaded, “Can’t we just get along?” The director from the next-door Buddhist center said that the weekend target practice from another neighbor was far more intrusive than Camp Nubar’s speakers. A Perch Lake resident read a letter from another weekender who finds the amplified noise from Camp L’Man Achai unbearable.
At the end of the hearing, Supervisor Donnelly said that all the comments as well as letters (1 for, 1 against) and the petitions (against) which had been submitted would be taken under advisement and that no action would be taken that day. The Town Council later voted 3-2 to table it.
The second hearing pertained to a Proposed Ordinance requiring decals for permitted use of the Andes Transfer Station. These would be issued to Andes residents at a cost of $1 per decal. The main purpose is apparently to curtail the dumping of huge loads of Construction & Demolition (C&D) by non-residents.
Queries as to notice and availability of decals were answered: It won’t start until December 1st. Pick up decals from the Town Clerk. The Council voted to approve the Ordinance for Permitted Use of the Transfer Station.~