The thing that attracted us most to Port Chester was the great diversity of restaurants and the success of small, local businesses.
We live in a neighborhood that the zoning department has designated as mixed use, so we share our lives with several of the aforementioned businesses. One of them, unfortunately, is a .
The club seems to cater primarily to Connecticut residents who get turfed out of bars between midnight and 1 a.m. So, just as my neighborhood is entering into a deep slumber, the club is gearing up for a busy night. If handled properly, this would probably not be a bad thing. However, in this situation, it is not being handled properly.
My neighbors and I have been trying now for about nine months to see some action taken about the excessive noise between the hours of midnight and 4 a.m., six nights a week. (Tuesday nights are a blessed relief.) Specifically, very loud music.
The club has never bothered to install any type of noise insulation. Any music played inside the establishment is also blasting into the back yards of all of the local residents.
So, we figured, we’d call the police. Several nights a week, we crawl out of bed around 1 or 2 a.m. and go downstairs to phone in a noise complaint. My guess is about 50 percent of the calls are responded to. I understand that there are many times when the police have more pressing situations to deal with, and I understand that completely. The problem is actually the 50 percent of the time when they do respond.
If the complainant is not waiting outside to meet them, they often just drive by and decide the noise isn't too loud. I don't blame them for thinking this, because the street-side noise isn't all that bad. The real problem is at the back of the club, where you can only hear the music when you're standing in our back yards. (Or attempting to sleep in our bedrooms at the back of our houses.)
If we happen to catch on officer, it then becomes a struggle to get them out of their car to investigate the noise. In all fairness, they used to be more willing, but it seems they've grown tired of the complaints. The last officer that came out actually told me that if the noise wasn't present on Main Street itself, it was out of his jurisdiction to investigate.I’m no lawyer, but Chapter 224-2 Section C Number 12 doesn't seem to state any requirement for the disturbance to occur on public property.
It gets better. I was eventually informed by the police that the noise laws in Port Chester are old and were written before modern-day music systems existed, therefore they’re not really relevant anymore. Huh? I always thought that if the law was on the books, it required enforcement. Not to mention that according to the laws, this section was amended on March 21, 2011.
And the problems have become worse than mere noise. Fights have broken out in the street in front of our homes. Someone has fired off a gun, twice! Patrons have smashed the glass in the door of the establishment. They also trespass on our properties and use them as latrines and dumping grounds. We have found everything from empty and broken beer bottles to drug packets littering our properties.
Once the police stopped being interested in assisting me, I took my complaints to both Mayor Dennis Pilla and Trustee Luis Marino. While they both seemed very willing to lend assistance in the beginning, I have stopped receiving follow ups from either of them.
So, I'm reaching out to the public at this point for either help or suggestions. Nobody should have to live under these conditions.
P.S. As of last night, it turns out the owners feel it's acceptable to pump sewage into the street. The Department of Health is investigating this today, but they've already confirmed to me that the worst-case scenario for the business is a fine, but most likely, the owners will just be told not to do this again. Children live in the apartment building right next door.
