Everyone's heard stories of city dwellers who buy a house in the country next to a dairy farm and then complain about the smell of cow manure. Hudson gets its own brand of folks who seem not to be paying attention when they buy property--for example, people who buy an old house in a city that takes pride in its historic architecture and then declare that they want "something modern."
This morning, a reader reported that the city clock in the tower of the First Presbyterian Church was no longer tolling the hour. It wasn't that the clock had stopped working (the picture below was taken today at precisely 9:53 a.m.), but the chiming of the clock to mark the hours had been silenced.
The clock no longer tolls the hours because of a "noise complaint." According to my source, some people who live near the church complained that the chiming clock woke them up at night. Some inquiries into the situation led me to Chapter 210 of the city code, the city's noise ordinance, specifically to § 210-7 Exceptions. The section begins: "The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to the following acts." Item E in the list is this:
The operation or use of any bell, chimes, or other instrument from any church, synagogue, temple, mosque or school licensed or chartered by the State of New York, provided such operation or use does not occur between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. of the following day.
The reference is to bells, chimes, and carillons that are rung as calls to worship or in celebration or recognition or for the joy of the sound of bells filling the air, not to a clock chiming the hour. It seems, however, that the City is now applying it to the clock because the city clock is located, as it has been since 1802, in the tower of a church. Because the chiming of the clock cannot be turned off for just nine hours every day, it has been completely eliminated as a consequence of the noise complaint.
Chapter 210 of the code, the noise ordinance, was "amended in its entirety" in October 2006. Gossips was an alderman when the noise ordinance was amended, and I can say with some confidence that I and my colleagues never imagined that this provision of the ordinance would be applied to the the chiming of the city clock and would result in the clock being silenced. This post should probably be subtitled "A Tale of Unintended Consequences."
COPYRIGHT 2021 CAROLE OSTERINK
That is unbelievable. Wait until Vince hears about this! Hudson is really going down the drain.
ReplyDeleteTwo solutions:
ReplyDelete1. The clock is only "silenced" during the night hours, say 11:00pm to 6:00am and/or
2. The complainers leave the city and move to Gallatin or Ancram.
Problem solved - you're welcome.
Read more carefully, Peter M. The clock chime cannot be turned off only part of the time. It's either on all the time or off all the time.
DeleteThird solution: Amend the City Code to provide an clear exemption. The Code--by its terms--is intended to prohibit "unreasonable" noise--"Any excessive, unusually loud or offensive sound which either annoys, disturbs, injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health, peace or safety of a reasonable person of normal sensitivities." At first look, church clock bells don't seem to violate that standard. If there are grounds to enforce the noise ordinance here, it seems that it might be in the Code's designation of "any sound which exceeds by five dB(A) the ambient noise level" as "unreasonable." This would not be a difficult fix.
DeleteYour analysis is in the right direction but ends in the wrong place. The Code section is a First Amendment dogpile. What makes a sound “unreasonable” and who is the arbiter of that? But leaving the 1A aside, a bell that has rung the hours in a municipality for over 200 years is, perforce, reasonable. QED. And the newbies who came to this “nuisance” should be ashamed of themselves for being shit neighbors as they move in. Shame.
DeleteBy their endurance alone the chimes are the very definition of "reasonable."
DeleteOne correction though: the complainer is not a newbie. A blow-in, yes, but living in Hudson a lot longer than most people who're commenting here.
In speaking with her I offered no resistance, so to collect as much information as possible. Here was the money quote: "All I had to do was ask the mayor!"
Which means the mayor is not the mayor of the people but the mayor of one person.
DeleteSpeaking as a Hudson resident who lives in close proximity to the Presbyterian Church, (and who, incidentally, has been pretty vocal over the years about the noise ordinance and the need to enforce it in a mixed use downtown commercial zone), I find this unbelievable. I LOVE the town clock and and the hourly chimes and have been missing it. I honestly thought it wasn't intentional that they had stopped, but a function of Mr Mulford no longer making sure it was working. Time to amend the Noise Ordinance to exempt the town clock.
ReplyDeleteIs there no way for some device to be installed to regulate when the bell rings, and when it does not? We have a Hobson's choice here. How do we "cancel" that?
ReplyDeleteNo. It’s a tower clock movement. One winds the “time” and winds the “strike” there are no other options. The DPW gets paid $800/year to maintain the clock running. It used to be a private citizens appointed job till Butterworth gifted it to the DPW. I tried to get two mayors to return the hip to the private sector but had no luck. Hard to believe the 220 jewel of a whole city can be silenced by noise complaints. With that reasoning that street sweeper should be shut down !!!
Delete* 220 year old jewel
DeleteThanks Vincent for getting the clock up and running in the first place. The rest of us will have to take it from here.
DeleteGood heavens, it's been going since 1802 folks. That's 219 years. And someone doesn't like the noise? And the City actually listened to someone? For goodness sakes. Furthermore doesn't the City budget provide $800 a year for maintenance of the clock? I suggest that the Council produces a resolution to get the Code fixed to include clock chimes along with the bells. It's a very welcome sound. What if someone complained about Big Ben?
ReplyDeleteI don’t understand how one or two people can have so much power over a whole city. One person complained and had a bar shut down, one or two people complain and a church bell is silenced. Shouldn’t these things be put to some kind of vote?
ReplyDeleteCan the mayor chime in on this conversation, seeing that he was the one that pulled the plug.
ReplyDeleteSorry newbies - the city clock must ring
ReplyDeleteThe Church’s clock is a historical item located in a historical building.
ReplyDeletePlease people, stop moving to Hudson and demanding that we change our way of life. Especially if you been bit by that I know what’s best bug.
And will someone or anyone that’s in “command” of our friendly city please go to Walmart and buy some balls.
Hear hear!
DeleteA quiet word to whoever lodged the noise complaint. Three things: 1) People are let's say irritated; on the community FB page the admin turned off comments after about 25, possibly more than any other post has accumulated. 2) People will find out who you are. 3) If you want to repair the damage and have a shot at living here in peace, a believable and widely distributed apology might be a wise move on your part.
ReplyDeleteJonathan Lerner
I live within earshot of the clock, and have always enjoyed it. If we're going to get serious about noise issues, there are more urgent considerations, like the jerks with the loud cars and motorcycles who insist on flaunting their male inadequacy by thundering down our main street at incredible volume. Or the guys who blast their boom boxes in the parking lot of the Terrace Apartment complex and render the Parade Hill park unusable in the evening.
ReplyDeleteGreat point! "Unusable!"
Delete"the guys who blast their boom boxes in the parking lot of the Terrace Apartment complex and render the Parade Hill park unusable in the evening."
Personally I've never heard the clock but I can understand how it might be an annoyance to someone with anxiety issues. Lots of people have can't sleep issues. The notion this person owes anyone an apology for expressing themselves is nonsense.
ReplyDelete