The Watertown City Council made another brave stand for business über alles by rejecting the suggestion that the city limit contractors to certain hours to do their noisy work. Rookie councilman and gubernatorial son-in-law Kyle Peters concluded that such a neighborly policy would be too hard to enforce:
I think that it’s extremely hard for us to put in policy what the hours are and then expect our law enforcement officers to enforce that [Councilman Kyle Peters, transcribed from audio, in Steve Jurrens, “Watertown Council Not in Favor of Implementing ‘Contractor Work Hours’,” KXLG Radio, 2023.12.12].
Well, maybe policy and enforcement are extremely hard for Republicans who don’t believe government can do anything other than hand out favors to relatives and cronies, but writing and enforcing a contractor work hours ordinance looks pretty easy to me. The city writes into every building permit the hours during which contractors will be allowed to operate heavy equipment in residential areas, say 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. At 7:01 p.m., the cops on duty stop by any work site where the backhoes are still beeping and hoeing and say, “Quittin’ time!” Come fall and winter, adjust the start and finish times to sunrise and sunset, since working in the dark is just an accident waiting to happen.
While we’re at it, include in the work hours ordinance a noise provision forbidding boom boxes during work hours. Loud music booming across the job site and the adjoining neighborhood is not necessary for contractors to do business, and such noise prevents workers from communicating and hearing Jim-Bob shout for help after he falls off the ladder. I’m open to including a prohibition on earphones, too, although I would think contractors would already recognize the importance of telling their workers to turn down their music and maintain their situational awareness.
But hey, Watertown is The City on the Go, and we wouldn’t want little things like safety and quality of life to get in the way of contractors going to work.
I would encourage residents to pressure the city council to enforce noise ordinances. In Sioux Falls, it is ignored constantly and when a city councilor tried a few years ago to form some kind of noise ordinances DTSF he was quickly swatted away. Enforcing noise ordinances is pretty easy, you just need a badge and a decibel reader. When I worked construction one summer in the early 90’s I worked for my brother in the Seattle area. We couldn’t turn on a saw until 7 AM and we rolled up at 4 PM. I know the reason the council is rejecting this, because the greedy contractors took on to much work so now they have to work 12 hour days. The FREE market is just that FREE. It shouldn’t be the concern of a taxpaying citizen whether Bob the Builder can finish his projects on the long summer days.
In re: to headphones. I use an open ear device that provides music, news and ability to answer phones calls while still allowing me to clearly hear regular environmental sound like approaching traffic from the rear while I am walking down the middle of a highway marking lines for milling. The device uses skeletal vibration vs. a plug in the ears as it’s transmission mode.
Let’s face it, Republicans/MAGAs find any regulation difficult to abide by. Freedumb, baby!
It isn’t hard to enforce the noise ordinance when it comes to a garage band. 10:01 on the spot, the Man comes a banging on the garage door, “Time’s up, Long Hairs!”
As for a little FM station listening on the job site boom box, folks tend to be off to work during the day, so it has never bothered any residents in my experience. Plus, it helps productivity when the crew is all on the same frequency.
Noise regulators need to be out in force. Especially with loud music from those cars that cruise around too.
I can’t speak for Watertown, but it sure would be nice if this type of noise ordinance applied to the train that runs directly through the middle of Rapid City (and is therefore something you can hear if you live within a mile of Omaha Street, which is about 90% of town. That’s vastly more irritating than any contractors or heavy machinery, especially because the train very reliably comes through town at about 3AM blasting its horn.
Right now there are only 9 hours of daylight.
To expect construction to stop when the sun sets is nonsense when you think how hard it is to find employees.
Not everyone can make a living being a keyboard commando.
Suffice it to say that Peters’ comment is inane. Nobody is expects the police to enforce 100% of the violations, but it still serves as a deterrent to contractors. There are all kinds of reasonable noise ordinances. This would be another.
Malarkey!
Ruhezeit rules!
“The ear never sleeps. It filters sound even during the night,”
A community merely needs fortitude to enforce excessive noise rules. One cannot mow ones yard with a gas mower on Sunday in Germany. It’s that simple.
One also cannot mow with a gas mower during a locally established quiet hours, often noon to 1400 (2pm for those how cannot count to 24). Living with Ruhezeit is beautiful. Ruhezeit creates a pleasurable community. Yet, Germany is the most productive EU economy so do not pretend that noise rules impair capitalism. Instead, noise rules create community.
https://www.goethe.de/ins/us/en/kul/liv/22320148.html
https://blog.lingoda.com/en/what-is-ruhezeit-in-germany/
https://liveingermany.de/quiet-hours-ruhezeit-in-germany/
Mowers are fine. They are soothing. And necessary. And they are way over in my neighbor’s yard. But when the baggy-pantsed kids are spewing thump music from odd little cars with tiny tires, the police should come and thump them on the head. Bonk bonk, on the head. You know they are toking the Demon Weed. And a weed house just burned down here today, I read. The Demon Weed will get more expensive, I am sure.
When are gas powered blowers, weed eaters, chain saws, lawn mowers, etc going to be outlawed in favor of battery operated devices that don’t cause noise or other pollution?
Ms. SuperSweet, the gasoline powered tools just have more heft, more oompffff, and more hutzaa. And Batteries pollute the world, required lithium mining, and generally burn coal to power them back up. Pour in a little gasoline, and zoom zoom!
Yep, as a hearing aid wearer chain saws, leaf blowers, and large lawn mowers disturb my peace…but…my rights end at my property line. I’m fine with that.
Word heard, John. I also read of another beautiful rule in Germany which makes it against peoples’ civil rights to deny them sunlight and fresh air in the workplace at least every four hours. The Deutsche enjoy office buildings full of windows, which are operable to let in light and outside air.
Noise pollution is a legitimate concern and we know obnoxious distractions can lead to people spazzing out and becoming paranoid or angry, and even isolated. That must be why the VW hippy bugs and buses have those peace signs.
In Mobridge, contractors can work 7 days a week at all hours AND park wrong on the street.
Watertown, where the beatings will continue until the morale improves