It came as no surprise last night that Village Trustees granted a noise variance to the Woodstock Inn for its last remaining back lawn wedding band of the season. They had, except for Trustee Bob Pear, expressed their intention to do so at a meeting earlier this month. The variance allows an extra half hour for the band to play until 10:30pm as opposed to the ordinance cut-off time of 10:00pm.
Several nearby residents came out to the support The Woodstock Inn and its wedding activities. They said they enjoyed hearing the music from the Inn up on High Street and did not think it was too much to allow the music to go a little later. Repeating his appeal from an earlier Trustees meeting, The Woodstock Inn’s Werner Graef said it’s important to be flexible if one wants to grow business in town. The Woodstock Chamber of Commerce’s Beth Finlayson said weddings are a key way to bring business to town. And, in one of the more humorous (albeit deadly serious) “threats”, Graef told Trustees if the opportunity of bringing weddings — and young people — to Woodstock is squandered, the Village will end up with The Woodstock Inn being “an old age house.” “If that’s what you want…fine.”
Ann Marie-Boyd, of High Street, said of the wedding bands playing into the evening , “I think they’re great! I don’t understand what this is all about. You live in the Village: Deal with It!” Cindy Metzler, also of High Street, said she loves the music and seconded the appeal not to shut down the bands early.
Rep. Alison Clarkson who also lives in a neighborhood close to the Inn said the wedding business is “invaluable” for the town and that even a 10:30 “lights-out” for the music is early. Repeating Graef’s appeal she said Villagers need to be “flexible” since weddings provide so much “bang for the buck.”
Finlayson who says she puts up with plenty of noise in Barnard and appealed to Woodstock residents to do the same, echoed the need for people “to understand” that the only way to keep the economy going is for weddings to continue unobstructed. (Woodstock Early Bird notes here the well-known adage which we believe is applicable to the economy: Beware of putting all your eggs in one basket).
All of this followed a veritable inquisition by Trustee Bob Pear of the Woodstock Inn’s Werner Graef. Pear began the meeting with a series of precise questions, delivered in a rapid-fire manner, concerning the Woodstock Inn’s already avowed (at previous meetings) “misdeeds” of not following noise ordinances to the letter of the law with timing or decibel level. Graef noted there would not be any more issues this summer season because the Inn does not have any more plans for back lawn wedding music. (Some 4 to 5 weddings out of the 40 scheduled asked for back lawn music).
However, the discussion about the one specific variance did open up the question of the rather murky, imprecise language of existing noise ordinances — with words undefined such as “normal” and “disturb”.
The Trustees decided they will put an overall look at Village noise ordinances on a future agenda when the Board is fully present (Chair Candace Coburn was not at last night’s meeting).
However, Interim Chair Eric Nesbitt did open up the discussion for public comment. Mountain Avenue’s Mimi Baird says she has noticed a marked “escalation of noise above normal” over the past few years. She said Villagers deserve some consideration for what they contribute to the community: paying taxes, keeping up lawns and generally making neighborhoods like hers places that welcome visitors who like to walk around town. She added, “Everyday is becoming arduous” with noise from lawn care operations, “This noise is invasive.” She stated, “We live here. We help tourism.”
Gay Travers, who also resides in the River Street/Mountain Avenue neighborhood, asked that Trustees take the opportunity to look at the noise ordinances overall as a way to create awareness among citizens. She says there are health and “quality of life” issues including the constant idling of cars and trucks, leaf-blowing and pesticide control spraying at all hours of the day and evening. Trustee Eric Nesbitt countered that “Life can be noisy.”
Finally, when Trustee Trish Compton asked for specifics on how noise ordinances might be changed, Woodstock Early Bird (yours truly) appealed for some changes to weekend noise of all kinds, suggesting it would be a good thing for visitors, too; moving the current 7am start time for noise to 9am, with a Saturday and Sunday end time of 5pm. On that particular point, High Street resident Ann Marie Boyd said that just wouldn’t be possible because, for various reasons, her family does its lawn-mowing after supper on weekend nights.
Woodstock Early Bird hopes that, in the spirit of community, we become aware that sometimes our activities affect others negatively and to — at the least — consider modifying them with or without concrete regulation. We are not free from becoming more aware ourselves and note that a lawn service we engage often contributes to the current din of daily life.
We must say that even we did change our minds just a bit about weekend music due to the enthusiasm of some of our neighbors.
Julia Carlisle
Woodstock Early Bird 