By Jason Clay Jansky

Several business owners in downtown Kenedy are complaining about noise again and despite the fact that the police department hasn’t written any citations to offenders, the police chief says officers have been working on the problem.

City council members adopted their noise abatement ordinance April 11, 2006 and Kenedy Police Chief Duane DuBose said his department has been working on educating noisemakers since then.

"When this came into play, we did a real large education program," DuBose explained. "Everybody kind of had an idea of which vehicles that were doing it. For several months, our push was more education. People didn’t realize," their cars were too loud, he said.

Officers spent time around places where cars gathered like local convenience stores, the city park, and Sonic Drive-In. They let people with loud vehicles know about the ordinance and that breaking it could get the offender a misdemeanor citation.

"For a while there, the complaints stopped," DuBose said. "We’ve now started — with it being spring and everybody being out — having some more complaints. Now we have different individuals that are either playing stereos too loud or having loud mufflers. Those are the ones we need to educate and also enforce the ordinance on."

Recently two downtown property owners called The Countywide to complain about a recent surge in the downtown noise level. They didn’t want their names to be mentioned for fear of retaliation from offenders.

The 505 Bed and Breakfast owner Truett Lee Hunt was willing to speak about the effect noise has had on his business, which sits on Main Street just before the traffic light at the 5th Street intersection.

He said he doesn’t think he’s lost any business over the noise, but claims it has affected his customers’ comfort while staying at The 505.

"At least half a dozen times a night, and that’s a real conservative estimate … there’s a boom box that comes by and rattles the windows," Hunt said. "That’s not taking into account loud mufflers or trucks that are in violation of the truck route. There are two very nice rooms that are right on the end there and people just don’t like to stay in them because there’s too much traffic noise."

DuBose said his department’s response to residential noise complaints and violations hasn’t been very well documented because most cases have been filed under the heading of "request to speak with an officer."

Stops made on noisy vehicles also sometimes result in the officer finding something much more serious.

"What was happening is that an officer would make a stop … using (noise) as a probable cause … and would come to find out maybe they didn’t have insurance or they’d be cited for something else. We realize we’re not tracking it the best way," DuBose said.

The department began a new classification system recently which will put noise complaint responses into two new categories; noise by vehicle and noise by ordinance.

DuBose said the police department has sound-measuring equipment they use to detect the decibel level of noise from a certain distance. The meters give the user a reading that can be used to determine whether the noise violates the city’s ordinance.

Any resident can borrow one of the meters from the police department for "educational purposes," DuBose said.