HomeMy WebLinkAbout1989-11-07-HEN-min.pdf SELECTMEN' S ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON HEAVY EQUIPMENT AND NOISE
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Minutes from Decembers 1989 Meeting
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The meeting was called to order at 8 40 p m All
members were present other than Chris , who was studying for
his law school exams , and Istvan The minutes from the prior
meeting on December 7 1989 were read and approved
Joy began by presenting, for the benefit of Tom who had
not attended the previous meeting, some background
information about the meeting There was a general
discussion of the information provided by the Town Police and
Fire officials who attended the meeting
Joy indicated that time was running out to decide the
need to reserve a space on the Town Warrant for the provision
of a proposed bylaw should it be the determination of the
Committee that a bylaw was necessary There was a consensus
reached at the meeting that , while there was some
disagreement about whether a bylaw was in fact needed, we
should at least seriously consider reserving a space on the
warrant to deal with a bylaw on the issues we were studying
in the event that we decided to go forward with a bylaw
We spent most of the remainder of the meeting reviewing
the results of the information we had received to date from
each member ' s inquiries to neighboring town and city
officials about the manner in which they handled similar
issues in their cities and towns , the problems that existed
with respect to the Brookhaven Development, and the other
problems and issues raised by the members reported in the
previous minutes The purpose of the review was largely to
focus our efforts on the options available to deal with heavy
equipment noise There was general consensus expressed among
the members that the Brookhaven Project problems , as we
understood them resulted in a serious and unreasonable noise
problem The issue however, that the members grappled with
was the best method for dealing in the future with problems
similar to those that we understood occurred at Brookhaven so
that the community would have an effective manner for dealing
with such problems
We shared the view that the current disturbance of the
peace laws ( the "good neighbor laws" ) may provide an
effective, albeit judicial , remedy for solving these
problems, and there was a sense that in some cases judicial
proceeding under the disturbance of the peace provision may
be the only effective remedy to deal with serious
Junreasonable noise problems We focused on whether a bylaw
would serve to provide an effective alternative to a judicial
proceeding under the disturbance of the peace provisions to
abate serious unreasonable noise problems as well as less
serious ones There was a general consensus that if a bylaw
could provide an effective alternative remedy for dealing
with serious noise abatement problems , we should propose such
a bylaw for town approval From the information we received
the good neighbor policy seems to have worked on many
occasions to abate less serious noise problems in the Town
although there was a recognition expressed among the members
that it would do no harm to have in addition to the good
neighbor policy, a bylaw which would provide specific ground
rules for the operation of heavy equipment and noise in
smaller, isolated or less serious project or activities Tom
expressed the concern as to whether a bylaw could be an
effective remedy to deal with the situation where a
contractor or subcontractor under pressure to complete a
project within a given time period in order to avoid
substantial penalties under the contract would be effective
to abate such activity We decided that it would make sense
to determine how much monetary clout in the form of fines and
penalties we could provide in a bylaw in order to abate the
more serious violations Tom agreed to discuss with Norm
Cohen this issue as well as to discuss with Norm the timing
and need to reserve space on the warrant in the event the
decision was to move forward on a heavy equipment noise
bylaw We also discussed alternative possibilities to deal
with the problem through the permit processes of the Town
There was a consensus that this may be a viable alternative
but would clearly not cover all situations particularly
those for which permits were not required
We adjourned the meeting at approximately 10 15
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