11 months ago
A noisy bar has Fort Valley looking to tighten its noise regulations.
Fort Valley police chief John Anderson says a bar called "The Swamp" has received many complaints from people living across the street since it opened two months ago.
However, the city's current noise ordinance is too vague and has the business and nearby residents asking for a sounder solution.
On weekends, Sara Oglesby says she can always count on one thing. Loud, blaring music from her new neighbor across the street.
"It probably starts Thursday, all the way up until Sunday," says Oglesby. "I can't even imagine how many speakers could be over there. Because it beats that loud and just shakes the entire house!"
Oglesby lives a couple hundred yards behind a bar called "The Swamp," and she says the constant noise disturbs her when she's sleeping.
The Swamp has gotten so many complaints since it first opened two months ago, Fort Valley's City Council drafted a new noise ordinance Thursday evening.
They say the current one is too vague. The new version should make enforcement fairer.
"It provides specificity and definition," says Mayor John Stumbo, of Fort Valley. "It removes that subjective and potentially discriminatory decision-making."
Stumbo says the new ordinance would set specific decibel levels, making what's noisy and what's not more cut-and-dried."
About 15 complaints have been filed against the Swamp since the beginning of September, and Fort Valley police chief John Anderson say he hopes the new ordinance will help solve that problem.
"That decibel level can be measured by a device that's very inexpensive," says Anderson. "And there's no question whether a violation has occurred."
Anderson says right now, officers called out on a noise complaint have to use their own ears to decide if the music's too loud.
Owner of the Swamp, Marcus Green says that vagueness makes his job harder too.
"It's difficult for me, if I'm going to be given citations," says Green. "I would just want to have a measure so that I would know how to stay in compliance and what to stay in compliance with."
Green says he cooperates when police ask him to turn down the volume, and says he's trying to maintain a neighborly relationship with those across the road.
Mayor Stumbo says he and the City Council should decide on the ordinance by December.
