Noise complaint aired at Jefferson meeting
Two neighbors complain about noise from bar
BY ANGELA GARY
Two men who live near Mike’s Down Under bar in Jefferson say the noise on Saturday nights is too loud and that it is causing problems for them. But bar owner Mike Carron said he checks the noise level to make sure it is under the city’s 60 decimal maximum.
Len Sturkie, who lives one block from the bar, said the noise from Mike’s has caused a “negative quality of life in my residence.” He said it has caused the “windows of his home to rattle.” He added that the noise is “impossible to ignore.”
“We can’t go to sleep,” he said. “We can’t rest when this is going on. We can’t open our windows and enjoy fresh air. We can’t sit on our screened porch and we can’t have friends over to sit on our patio. This goes on until at least one and sometimes two on Sunday mornings… our home has been a private residence for 120 years. We are being treated as commercial property because the city has includes several residences in the C-2 highway commercial district.”
Sturkie asked that the decimal level maximum be lowered to 45 db from 60 db. He also asked that the music end at midnight instead of 1 a.m.
Sturkie gave the council a demonstration of what 60 decimals sounds like. He left the meeting room and played a recording from outside the room. He said the noise, which could be clearly heard inside the meeting room, was 60 decimals.
Another neighbor, Bobby Patterson, also asked that the decimal level be lowered and the time for music to stop be moved to midnight. He also asked the council to consider a probation period for businesses that continue to violate the noise ordinance.
“It has been a problem,” Patterson said of the noise. He added that he has an elderly mother and a family member with medical problems and the noise is a concern for them too.
But Carron’s attorney, Nancy Val Preda, said that no violations have been reported at the bar.
“Mike’s isn’t noisy for a bar,” she said. “We have maybe two gentlemen who have complained. There have been no citations…Officers responded but they found no violations. We’re not violating the ordinance…He’s in at 60 (decimals). That is your ordinance.”
The attorney said that some of the complaints about the noise have been “harassing in nature.”
“We’re running as quiet as a bar can when you have people having a good time,” he said. “We ask that things stay as they are.”
Carron said he also has a decimal reading device and he uses it to check the sound level of the bands that perform at the bar.
“We’re doing everything that we can,” he said.
Police chief Joe Wirthman said 15 complaints about the noise have been reported in the past 10 months.
