Slippery Rock Borough Council met Oct. 4 for their monthly workshop meeting. One of the main topics of conversation during the meeting centered around updating the noise ordinance.
The Rocket had the opportunity to speak with Slippery Rock mayor, Jondavid Longo, on how the subject of updating the noise ordinance came to be.
Longo shared that a flag was placed on July 2 to open Slippery Rock’s celebrations for Independence Day. Following the raising of the flag, a member of the Slippery Rock community brought a noise concern to individual borough council members.
According to Longo, the member of the community who brought their concerns to the council lives near Slippery Rock Park. The community member was concerned by the noise decibels the flag was creating and alleged that a test he performed in his home was reading 100 decibels as a result of the flag.
Following the complaints, the borough hired Gateway Engineers to perform tests within Slippery Rock to monitor noise levels. The results showed that noise levels were at the highest when the flag was not raised.
Council solicitor Rebecca Black shared that the average decibel reading within Slippery Rock reached 68 decibels. Black’s findings came per the results of the Gateway Engineers report. Gateway Engineers’ testing led to the council re-visiting the current noise ordinance and determined that no specified noise limit was stated within.
Longo shared that because of this, the ordinance was impossible for the town to enforce. This led the council to propose an amendment to the ordinance and wish to raise the maximum decibel level to 90 decibels.
This would ensure that community members having a good time within the park would not be in violation should a crowd at a baseball game begin cheering. The council was very clear that they wanted community members to be able to enjoy the park.
Longo shared that the council’s intent is to find a way to re-establish the noise ordinance to ensure that it is fair to the community. The council is aware that they will not be able to please everyone, though.
Several members of the community attended the meeting on Tuesday, with some voicing their concerns. The council is open for any and all suggestions from the public and encouraged the community members in attendance to contact the borough with said suggestions.
The Rocket reached out to the borough manager, Christian Laskey, for information on how to connect with the community member who initially raised concerns, but did not hear back in time for print.
The borough is set to vote on the amended ordinance at their next scheduled borough meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 17.
