To the editor:
Recently I wrote a letter to the Independent regarding unresponsive police and noise issues. Trust me readers, there is noise, and then there is NOISE. I have no issue with the first, and significant issue with the second. The weekly band practice, the occasional party. I have no issue with that. Four guys being louder than a Court Street festival, 2 or 3 times every week, I have an issue with that. I hope we all would.
As I plead with the police, the prosecutor, council, and the mayor to do something besides coddle individuals who ruin the enjoyment of neighbors thousands of feet away, I looked into the root causes.
My research shows that our ordinance is vague, without going into the details, it can be improved. Perhaps it is the ambiguity in the ordnance that causes lack of enforcement, I don’t know.
I looked at the Kent Ohio ordinance, home of Kent State. Their law is better. I then searched the court dockets and compared Kent vs. Athens. In Athens, since January there have been zero noise ordinance violations charged. There have been zero nuisance party charges.
In Kent, since January there have been 13 noise ordinance violations charged, and sixkt nuisance party violations charged.
Kent enrollment = 25,000. OU enrollment = 23,000. What is the difference?
Similar ordinances, although ours is faulty and that might be why it is not enforced. But in general we have a problem. A problem that can be solved with a simple ticket and a graduated response to further violations.
*note* I get it, some busybody neighbor is complaining about noise, what a party pooper. Trust me, I am complaining about NOISE, not noise. For example being able to make out the lyrics to “Dirty Effin Crack Whore” from 1/3 a mile away. Not so much the lyrics that bother me, but that I can make out the lyrics at that distance.
Tom Hanlon
Athens, Ohio