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Town of Lexington Noise Advisory Committee Minutes of Meeting of September 25, 2019 A meeting of the Noise Advisory Committee was held on Wednesday, September 25, 2019 at 7:30 PM in the Hudson Room of Cary Hall. A quorum of five members was present. Members Present: Lee Minardi (Chair), Dan Koretz, April Wang, Mark McConnell, Holly Sweet, Mark Sandeen (liaison, Selectman). Lee presented the minutes of the previous (August 28) meeting. The committee voted to accept them. The committee discussed the format of meeting minutes and agreed that a summary of each discussion is sufficient. Lee raised the issue of police involvement in dealing with noise complaints. He went to the police department on September 23 to see how a noise complaint he had made on May 7 was handled. He described the initial complaint, the manner in which his request for information was handled, the record of the policy response, and his recommendation. He presented the committee with a written description as well, which is included with these minutes as Appendix A. Lee emphasized that the police have noise meters but that none was used in the case of his complaint. Rather,the complaint was evaluated based on an officer's judgment. Lee suggested that personal judgment isn't sufficient for evaluating noise complaints and recommended suggesting that people calling in noise complaints request a meter reading. Mark S. noted that the Town Manager said that noise complaints should be directed to the Health Department or, in the case of construction noise, the Building Commissioner. He noted that at present, the point of contact for both is the same person in Town Hall. Mark reported that the Town Manager asked the Public Information Officer, Sean Dugan, to find ways to make this clear to residents. This is likely to include modification of the town website. Mark suggested that the NAC assist Sean in devising appropriate wording. Dan noted that we need to resolve the proper point of contact. Most residents are likely to turn to the police, and if the police have the sound meters, that is another reason to send complaints to them. It might be that the Health Department would receive the complaint and then request that the police evaluate the noise involved. There was agreement that this needs to be clarified. The committee agreed that a first step is to meet with the Director of the Health Department, Kari Sasportas, to discuss how the NAC can work the Department in general 1 2019-09-25-NAC-minutes-draft