HARWICH – The Town of Harwich Board of Selectmen met recently to discuss the enforcement of the town’s noise by-law.
It considers a violation any person or persons that cause or allow any noise which radiates from any building, boat, structure, vehicle, premises, or any sound amplification system, which can be heard at a distance of 150 feet.
“Every time we interact with a drinking establishment, no matter what, it gets a log entry an incident number and a detailed report as to what exactly happened,” said Harwich Chief of Police David Guillemette.
Guillemette said there are some changes from how the law was enforced last summer.
Previously, businesses and residents were allowed one formal warning before they were given a violation that would be documented and reviewed by the town.
This summer there will be no warnings and every violation will be documented and reviewed by the board.
“There are going to be no more warnings, no more written warnings, no more verbal warnings, everything is going to be documented and sent up the line to the board,” said Guillemette.
Through the by-law, businesses are not only responsible for their entertainment, but also any crowd noise emanating from the establishment.
“Crowd noise was a fairly new phenomena for us last year and we had a little trouble understanding it, but crowd noise is going to fall into the same category as live entertainment from this point forward because it is creating as much as a problem if not more than the actual music,” said Guillemette.
Violations could result in establishments losing both their liquor and entertainment licenses.
By Will Moore, CapeCod.com News Center
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