City leaders makes improvements to noise ordinance
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – The City of Columbus has a noise ordinance on the books, but some say it doesn’t go far enough, so city leaders want to turn it up a notch.
“In the press conference today, I was discussing the noise ordinance that we have had in place since 2022. We had a citizen who reached out to us about excessive muffler noises in the city. Especially around this particular neighborhood. So, when he came to us, I got with our city attorney and our Police Chief to review the policy, and the citizen reviewed the ordinance as well,” said Columbus Mayor Keith Gaskin.
Gaskin said he sees a pattern to the complaints.
“As far as mufflers and stuff, the other noise complaints have been called in around restaurants that have been playing music late in the evenings,” said Gaskin
“A lot of the complaints come from those large trucks, the ones that look like monster trucks going by. A lot of these mufflers are packages that are on vehicles, so it really varies from the type of car and size. With motorcycles, it is usually the radios are too loud when they are driving, but their mufflers are pretty loud on motorcycles. So, it can be a vehicle of any size,” said Gaskin
While some people have complained that noise is in the ear of the beholder, City Attorney Jeff Turnage said there is a range, and it can be measured.
“You have a different spectrum of noise, but the decibel reader will measure DBA and DBC, one is high pitch and the other one is low pitch. It depends on where the sound is happening, if it is outdoor entertainment, then it depends on the zone. If it is in a historic or business district, between the hours of 10 pm – 1 am it is 70 DBA and 80 DBC. After 1 am, it is reduced to 65 DBA and 71 DBC,” said Turnage.
