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St. Augustine Gets Loud About City Noise

Allie George / WJCT News
Jay Bliss address city commissioners about motorcycle noise

While street racket may be an unavoidable norm in big cities, St. Augustine residents say the noise is getting to be too much for the small town.

City commissioners heard citizens’ grievances Thursday at the Alcazar hotel at the urging of a group called the St. Augustine Livability & Sustainability Alliance, or SALSA.

Commissioners agreed a streamlined reporting system needs to be made readily available to the public to better track complaints around the city. They also said additional data is needed to understand where major problem areas are, and to determine whether or not changing the existing ordinance makes sense.

RELATED HEADLINE: St. Augustine Musicians Vocally Oppose New Noise Restrictions

The existing ordinance states the sound level from the border of a property line cannot exceed 65 decibels, which is slightly louder than a typical conversation, on weekdays.

The group's president, longtime St. Augustine resident Frank Barzo, said its aim is encouraging people to have conversations about mainly environmental issues that affect the livability of the community. It first formed, however, to address the noise.

Barzo described the downtown din at the gathering.

“Nice music playing, everyone loves that,” he said. “But when you’ve got people shouting at each other, all kinds of raucous noise going on, motorcycles roaring through town with modified mufflers, it creates an atmosphere of lawlessness and ill will.”

Other locals lodged complaints about cannon fire, trolley trains, and late-night bar noise, to name a few.

Dave Chatterton, general manager of Old Town Trolley Tours, is working hard to address these concerns. He said that providing headsets for passengers would result in too much environmental waste, besides not being feasible given the open-air nature of the fleet. However, he added the company would be installing directional speakers to focus the tour guide’s voice into the vehicles.

Melinda Rakoncay has worked on the cannon crew at the Castillo de San Marcos, and noted they have decreased the frequency of firing, as well as reduced the amount of gunpowder used from 3 lbs. to 8 oz.

“This idea of using a simulated puff of smoke and a recorded sound is ridiculous,” she said. “People from all over the nation … come to see what a cannon from the 1740s sound and felt like.”

Jeanetta Salyer, a musician who frequently plays in historic downtown, said a stricter noise ordinance could be damaging to entertainers in the area, who need to make their voices heard above even acoustic instruments.

“We see so many of you out and enjoying the live music, and it’s not a war as  much as (a question of) where do we compromise so that the residents can expect — it’s a Friday night downtown — it’s going to be busy,” she said.