Residents want noise ordinance

    MILO—Twenty residents came to the Milo Town Board meeting Monday, Aug. 20 to express their concerns related to excessive noise in rental properties around their homes. Supervisor Leslie Church addressed the issue at the beginning of the meeting, acknowledging the need to consider a noise ordinance and discuss how to enforce it. Sheriff Ronald Spike also attended the meeting to hear citizen comments.
    “From my perspective, it’s just a full time party from the third week of June to the end of next week,” resident Ned Rubin said. “This is not the Keuka Lake I grew up on.”
    Rubin said there are constantly parties occurring at nearby properties along Keuka Lake that are rented out for a week at a time to different people. He said he has had to put out campfires late at night that have been left unattended and has even had his life threatened by five Marines when he confronted them about the party noise. Rubin said he had given up calling the sheriff’s department two years ago because of their consistent inability to put an end to these parties.
    Resident William Lang also expressed his dissatisfaction with the sheriff’s department’s inability to put a stop to the parties, saying it would be nice if the officer had gone next-door and told those being loud to knock it off or someone is going to jail. Instead, Lang said an officer told him, “There is no law in Milo, you can do whatever you want for as long as you want. There is nothing I can do. You have to deal with it. Have a nice day.” Lang said he did not wish to divulge any more details regarding the event that took place when he complained about the party noise.
    Spike said he would be in favor of a noise ordinance in order to help the sheriff’s department better determine the terms of the law regarding noise complaints. He said currently the sheriff’s department goes by state penal law which only allows an officer to charge someone with disorderly conduct, harassment or criminal nuisance charges.
    Spike said disorderly conduct would not apply in these circumstances because the parties are happening on private property, not public. He said in order for a harassment charge to be made, there has to be a deliberate intent to cause alarm or repeatedly commit acts which serve no legitimate purpose. Spike said a criminal negligence charge has to inconvenience a considerable amount of people, which the law defines as seven individuals or more.
    With a noise ordinance, Spike said the town would be able to better define what “unreasonable noise” is and set quiet hours. He said if an officer then witnesses these ordinances being violated, he or she can enforce them better and take action.
    Many others in the audience agreed that the partying and noise issues have been going on for too many years, saying how an ordinance is needed to allow the sheriff’s department to better intervene.
    “It is not our job to get in fights with our neighbors,” Rubin said. “You don’t understand how bad this is.”
    Church said it is a cause for concern, and that the board will weigh the information and talk about how it is going to be enforced. Later during the meeting, Church discussed the possibility of trying once more to convince members of the Yates County Legislature to support a county-wide noise ordinance. County Legislator Mark Morris also attended the meeting, saying the legislature was hesitant to pass a county-wide ordinance in the past because they did not want to impose it on the county and wanted to allow the towns to make the decisions for themselves.
    Church said if that did not work, then the board would contemplate doing their own.
    In other news: The board agreed to mail a survey regarding hydraulic-fracturing to the residents of Milo to gather opinions on the issue. The board agreed to go with a modified variation of Barrington’s survey, asking residents if they think it can be done safely, if they believe it has economic benefits and if they support fracking at all. Church said the surveys will be mailed out by the end of the first week in September and will require residents to send them back within two weeks of the mailing date.
    Church said last year the board passed a resolution to override the tax cap in order to protect the town from state penalties in the event of any miscalculations. She said they do not intend to go over the cap, but to just use it as a safety measure. Church said she plans to start the overriding procedure this year’s tax cap year at the next meeting.
    The board discussed the possibility of designating an area for the town to dispose of compost, saying it may be something the town could handle on a seasonal basis.
    The next town board meeting is Monday, Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. in the town hall.