Making good on a promise made to a Riverside family concerned that a local pub’s musical events would disrupt their lives, Riverside trustees on May 2 are expected to amend the village’s noise ordinance to allow police officers to directly sign complaints against offenders.
Currently, noise regulations are handled under the “disorderly conduct” section of the village code, requiring a complainant other than the police for a noise complaint formally to be lodged.
The amendment takes noise regulation out of that part of the code and creates an entire new chapter, devoted solely to noise disturbances. In addition to allowing police officers to sign complaints for noise violations, the new chapter expands the definition of what constitutes a noise violation and also includes some exceptions to the rules.
New to the code are violations related to car exhausts and mufflers, blowers and generators, rattling vehicles, loading and unloading at odd hours, drums, and the sounding of horns and alarms.
The new code will make an exception for generators running in the event of power outages.
Riverside officials promised a fresh look at the village’s noise ordinance in the wake of granting a probationary permit to Molly’s Public House for up to three music events per week in March.
A family living across the street from the business stated that prior music events had been disruptive and argued they shouldn’t be tagged with the responsibility of filing a formal complaint every time things got too noisy.
