The Montgomery town board, in accordance with local police, are revisiting a noise ordinance local law after receiving recurring complaints about noise.

Noise issues have been circulating in the town for a while now, often being called in to local police or the Town Supervisor, Ron Feller. In fact, Feller mentioned that in recent weeks, residents have contacted Town Police Chief John Hank and himself [Feller] directly about a possible noise ordinance.

“I had a woman come into my office almost in tears and on the verge of saying ‘My husband is gonna go and take matters into his own hands if these people next door don’t do something,’” said Feller.

The idea is to pass a noise ordinance law that will be enforceable based on decibels at the person’s property line at a certain time period. Feller mentioned that they could have “different decibels at different times on different days.” Decibels are units used to measure the intensity of sound.

“You might be able to have a Saturday night party at 60 decibels up until 11 o’clock at night but you can’t do that on Sunday night, and maybe during the day you can’t be more than 50 decibels. I’m just throwing these numbers out here because we’re doing some research and we gotta get it right,” said Feller.

He also mentioned that the police would learn and use a meter to enforce this.

Police Chief Hank described the ordinance as “long overdue,” stating that the law will need very clear lines so it’s easier to enforce. He also stated his urgency to get it up and moving.

“The 18 years that I’ve worked in the Town of Montgomery, this has been a constant problem every single summer. We’ve been asking for this for over a decade,” said Hank.

The law would be Local Law No. 2 of 2023, otherwise known as the “Town of Montgomery Noise Control Law.” The purpose is to create regulations concerning noise within the town in order to allow all town residents to remain at peace at their properties without other noise disturbance from nearby sources or other properties.

Definitions, noise level standards, prohibited noise activities, permitted noise and more are included in this drafted law, which can be found on the Town of Montgomery website. Some examples of prohibited noise include vehicle horns, “unless it is necessary as a warning to prevent or avoid a traffic accident,” and burglar alarms, which “shall terminate within 15 minutes after it has been activated.”

The law also states some exclusions, including natural phenomena, or bells from building, school or church clocks.

Though it is still in early phases, the supervisor and chief are on the same page about getting this law passed.

“The chief and I both agree that you can’t have loud obstructive noise anytime during the day. At five in the afternoon people come home from work and people are blasting their speakers into other people’s property. It’s just something that we have to don’t have to deal with on a constant basis,” said Feller.

The town was scheduled to hold a hearing on May 9 at Montgomery Town Hall.