Members of Panama’s village board have begun looking into what it would take to make a noise ordinance part of village law. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

PANAMA — Following an incident in the village, the Panama Village Board has begun discussions on what it would take to make a noise ordinance part of village law.

During the board’s June meeting, Mayor William Schneider, who called into the meeting, said there were some noises from residents who live above the village hall that turned into a bigger problem.

“They became quite a nuisance to the community, especially when we weren’t around to hear it,” Schneider said. “But the other neighbors had complained. There were several incidents of law enforcement showing up and the landlord has been in contact with me several times and we’re trying to work with them.”

Schneider said the landlord was able to get the situation rectified for now, but what has come out of this is that the village does not currently have an established noise ordinance. Schneider said he has been reaching out to other municipalities to see if they had noise ordinances, if they could send theirs to him so he could see what they say, and how they enforce it.

“Because the other problem, I talked with Melanie (Eddy, village code enforcement officer) yesterday, was that in the past law enforcement will tell the land owner to call the code enforcement officer and have them do it,” Schneider said. “Well, our code enforcement officer is for enforcing the building and zoning code, not to enforce a noise ordinance.”

Schneider said he plans to talk with the undersheriff, who he has talked with before and has a good relationship with, to see what the undersheriff would need in a noise ordinance in order to be able to enforce it on a call.

It will probably be a few months before something is brought before the board to put it into the village law, because Schnieder said once they have all of the materials there is a required public hearing and a referendum and another meeting before it can be officially a law.

Village Trustee Kim Davis said they knew that Busti for sure had a noise ordinance with what they believed the time frame to be 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., saying that they thought once things got going that that would be a good time frame for them as well.

Following research into the matter, the village does have a curfew but no noise ordinance. The only thing in the law that is an ordinance in regards to noise is focused on fireworks.

“So that’s where we’re going with that in case you hear something from somebody,” Schneider said. “I felt very badly that the young parent had to write to the village to talk about her story, and it also allows us to understand that this is really something serious and not a neighbor versus a neighbor thing.”

The board noted that the people that lived above the village hall that were the perpetrators of the noises and problems are gone now and the landlord was able to get them to move on.

“But if you think about it, that could happen anywhere in the village,” Schneider said.