LAW WOULD HUSH LOUD NOISES; CITY PROPOSES CHANGES TO EXISTING ORDINANCE

A noise-control ordinance would give Cape Girardeau police the right to seize as evidence ear-rattling stereos, vehicles and other noisemakers if their owners don't agree to turn down the volume.

That doesn't mean police officers would be snatching up boomboxes left and right, said Police Chief Rick Hetzel.

Seizing the noisy apparatus "sounds somewhat drastic; however, it's been done successfully in other jurisdictions," Hetzel said. "I don't envision an officer arriving and immediately seizing the instrumentality."

But officers would warn noisemakers that their property could be taken into evidence, he said.

"Sometimes that's what it takes to get people's attention," Hetzel said.

"One of the problems with noise enforcement is that when we come to a location once, we find ourselves returning to that location several times," he said. "If we have to come back, we may just take it with us. That way we can make sure the noise is stopped."

He said once people learn the ordinance has teeth they will learn to turn down the volume.

City attorney Eric Cunningham pointed out that the items would be returned to their owners once the municipal court proceedings are completed.

The ordinance, given to City Council members Monday night for consideration at the Feb. 17 council meeting, would also allow police to initiate complaints.

It also spells out what constitutes a noise disturbance and adds definitions to make enforcement easier, Cunningham said.

Loud stereos, radios or televisions, honking horns, construction activity, singing, whistling, hooting or hollering on the street and noisy animals would be prohibited under the ordinance, just as they are under the existing ordinance.

The new ordinance adds definitions of what constitutes noise disturbance and what activities might prompt a complaint.

But cranking up the stereo or firing up the noisy lawn mower would be allowable an hour earlier under the new ordinance. The existing ordinance specifies 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. as the time to refrain from certain noisy activities.

The new ordinance would change that period from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.

And the same conditions -- noisy animals or repairing or operating vehicles or boats -- are prohibited all day long, if the noise is evident from a distance of 50 feet from the site of the activity.

When things get too loud, residents make a lot of noise to the police department, Hetzel said. "We get a lot of complaints, particularly about the loud car stereos that seem to be very popular," he said.

Car stereos are more than just annoying, Hetzel said. If the music is too loud, the drivers and passengers might not hear emergency sirens or other warning signals.

City Councilman Melvin Gateley said he asked that the ordinance be expanded after John Eck, a Cape Girardeau resident and principal at Schultz Middle School, sent him a copy of a similar ordinance and said he had been bothered by excessive noise.

Eck lives off Broadway, and said that noise from car stereos had caused the glass windows in his home to crack.

"I had observed this on Broadway when cars were moving up and down," Gateley said. "In fact, there at the First Baptist Church I was working on the roses, and I'd hear it as they went up and down."

Noise was also one of the concerns cited in a survey of South Cape Girardeau residents, he pointed out.

PROPOSED NOISE ORDINANCE

The Cape Girardeau City Council will consider a proposed revision of the city's noise ordinance. Among its new provisions:

-- Police officers can seize stereos, radios, or other items as evidence when they report to a location on a noise complaint.

-- Officers can initiate complaints.

-- The ordinance defines that a noise disturbance is any sound which "endangers or injures" the health and safety of people or animals, "annoys or disturbs" a reasonable person or "endangers or injures" people or property.

More noisy acts are prohibited, including:

-- Operating tools or equipment for construction, demolition or drilling work between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.

-- Repairing, rebuilding, modifying or testing motor vehicles or motor boats

-- Operating a motor vehicle or motor boat between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.; operating power tools, lawn or garden tools, snowblowers, etc., between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.

-- Outdoor hockey, basketball or other recreation outdoors between 11 p.m. and 6 am.