Position Statement - Noise
Issue- We believe that the city of Macomb, Illinois, suffers the following problems:
1. Health and quality of life decline from an increase in human generated noise from loud vehicles, use of sound amplification equipment out of doors, and large gatherings of persons during evening and night hours.
2. Disturbance within our own homes due to problems related to the actions of irresponsible persons, hosts of parties, and some landlords, such as;
- an increase in disruptive noise (shouting, car horns, radios, televisions, etc.)
- increased traffic with stereos generating noise which can be plainly heard indoor
- decreased ability to sleep undisturbed in some dwellings, particularly during times of the year when the weather is nice and people are more prone to having large gatherings out of doors
Proposed Solution
In the spring of 2003, after checking the statistics, we found that the City of Macomb had issued only 5 tickets for loud car stereos the entire previous year. We met with the Chief of Police to request that the Macomb City Police begin ticketing loud car stereos which violate the Illinois State law (can be heard 75 feet away).
There is already a sound law on the books; we asked for consistent, visable enforcement of the law. Other college communities have led the way in taking a firm stance on this law, such as Mattoon, IL. The law does NOT require a complaint for an officer to issue a ticket.
Status
We tried to file a FOIA request in the fall of 2004 to determine if the number of tickets had gone up, but were issued a complete denial of all requested data by the Chief, so we can not verify that any tickets have been issued on this law. We will readdress the issue at a later date.
Supporting Research
1. McCarthy, Rebecca. (2001). "Neighbors complain about noise, trash, and rental properties in single-family areas". Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 4, 2001. Available: http://www.edc.org/hec/news/hecnews/0936.html
2. McMeekan, Heather (2001). Statistics for "Loud Party Complaints" in Macomb, IL., for the time period from August 20, 2000 to May 20, 2001. Statistics compiled from information obtained from the "freedom of information act". Available: partystats.html
3. City Code
of Eugene, Oregon, online [Electronic]. (February, 1993). Available:
http://www.ci.eugene.or.us/Cityreco/Citycode/Chapter4/c4.045-084.htm
4 . DeJong, William, and Epstein, Joel [Electronic]. (2000, December). "Working in partnership with local colleges and universities". Available: http://www.edc.org/hec/pubs/strategizer.pdf
5. Gebhardt, Thomas [Electronic]. (1998). "Town Gown Cooperation". Available: http://www.edc.org/hec/pubs/articles/towngown.html