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Show The Salt Lake Tribune NATION Sunday, April 27, 1997 Few U.S.Cities Have Programs court, where, in a costly and em- barrassing legal battle, the city’s noise code was declared unconstitutional. Seeking tips from other communities, Klein called about 40 cities at randem for copies of their ordinances. About 10 wrote To Fight Noise or called back to say that they & From Previous Page didn't even have noise abatement programs — no noise ordinances and no police officers trained in noise enforcement. Another 10 sent codes with flaws thatleft them vulnerable to where the pop of guns ricochets throughout the day when the rangeis in use. Last fall, New York started a chronic quality-of-life problems. Of some1,500 calls in thefirst two weeks alone, noise-related complaints accounted for 40 percent. noise enforcement, he was transferred here and there and often Peace and Quiet, whose founder, John Dallas, believes that the sameselfishness that drives brazen noisemakers also underpins The federal jury ruling Friday cameafter nine years of legal battles between Ron Chasteen and tem would better adjust to differ- they'd ever seen in the snowmo- ent conditions at high altitude. Chasteen said he kept develop- bile industry.” Chasteen shared more informa- ing the system after his business folded in the mid-1980s, present- two-year period — at which point Fuji Heavy Industries of Tokyo. At issue was an electronic fuel- injection system for two-stroke snowmobile engines, which Chas- teen brainstormedat his snowmobile shop in Arizona. “My customers wereconstantly getting stranded,” Chasteen said ing his prototype to Polaris in 1986. “When they saw it, they said that on a scale of one to 10, I'd hit a 12,” Chasteensaid. “They tion with the manufacturer over a the companysaid it had shelved plansto useit. An appeal is possible, said Fuji attorney William Bianco. wound up with no information. “They «weren't familiar with their code, with whatit entailed,” other urban problems. Klein says. “It's there to help the community but it was being un- And public outery has sidelined a 1994 federal law requiring trains to blow their whistlesatall derutilized.”” One recent evening two inspec- tors from the Department of Environmental Protection came to 168,000 crossingsin the nation as a safety measure. The deadline for enactment was last November, but it has been postponedin- investigate a complaint by Deborah Hochman, whose apartment definitely. in lower Manhattansits 20 yards Today, more than 3,000 towns andcities bar trains from blowing their whistles at local crossings. In Montpelier, Vt., the recently opened Noise Pollution Clearing- from a sound studio. The beating of drumsand wailing of electric guitars carries on nightly, some- times until 3 a.m. “You can't calm down. You can't breathe. You can't relax. house provides communities with studies, data and other tips — in- You can't even watch TV,” says Hochman, a teacher in Brooklyn. “The beat becomes your life.” formation once circulated by the Office of Noise Abatement and Control. Hochman led the inspectors of onto her fire escape to show them buzzes, screeches and humsthat the back doorof the soundstudio, which was open at the time. Several dreadlocked musicians were taking a smokebreak, while a jam make up community noise, cities and towns only have control over some. Air, car and planetraffic, for instance, elevate noise levels, but the federal governmentalone session took shapeinside. The inspectors stepped back stationary noise sources — those based in a particular community — that townsand cities can regu- out a noise meter and pointedit toward the studio. For the next sets their standards. It is so-called into the apartment, and with the fire escape door still open, pulled late. An industrial cooling system alarm thatrings unchecked. invention. He believed anelectronic fuel sys- tries of Minneapolis and supplier When Klein called up some of including the Brenx Campaign for blasting 24 hours a day. a $57 million court award against companieshe suedforstealing his said it was the greatest advance snowmobile maker Polaris Indus- the communities and asked to speak to the person in charge of accumulation THE ASSOCIATED PRESS DENVER — A mechanic who came up with an idea for a snowmobile fuel-injection system won haphazardly The prevalenceof noise has giv- en rise to a numberof crusades, the Inventor Takes Big Companies to Court, Wins $57 Million court challenges. For example, their overseers knew almost nothing about the codes themselves, or the decibel ranges had been set hot line for citizens to report Among Alg five minutes, the digital reading vacillated between 47 decibels A car and 51 decibels; Anything above Communities have two weapons at their disposal: The first is 51 is a violation. called a nuisance code, whichal- another reading. They did. lows officers to ticket anything, change. Dressed casually in jeans and leather coats, the inspectors, In- Hochman asked them to take No noise included, that to them constitutes a nuisance. The secondis called a performancecode, which lays out a decibel range.If a noise dia-born Mohammad Khokhar, 33, and Haiti-born Emmanuel exceeds the high end, it’s in viola- Brutis, 36, were soft-spoken and friendly. They apologized to tion Several years ago, when Corey Klein became assistant corpora- Hochman for not being able to do more, and encouragedher to file another complaint if the music tion counsel in Long Beach, N.Y., oneof hisfirst tasks wasto write a new noise ordinance, Just six months earlier, a boardwalk preacher who had been cited 16 times had takenthecity to federal got louder. Later, standing outside Hoch- man’s building, Khokhar explains to a reporter: ‘Wehave to keep up their hopes.” Vtiim Le aaa baCut Until-You: Read. A Copy: Of: This-FREE ‘Report! Hf you are selling your home or thinking of selling your home, get a copy of this FREE Report today. It could save you thousands of dollars in profits and time, too. It highlights an 8-step system to get for the highest price! your home sold as quickly as possible AirTouch™ Cellular gives you the largest coverage areaat local rates. 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