The Wrangell Borough Assembly came together for their regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday evening, March 12. The meeting drew an unusually large crowd, as well, as the assembly was scheduled to vote on a proposed noise ordinance after its second reading that night.
Basically, the ordinance that came before the assembly stated that it would be illegal for someone to create noise above the level of 90 decibels between the hours of 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays, and from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends and holidays. During all other hours, the noise level was lowered to 50 decibels. The proposed ordinance did also contain several exemptions from this rule, including personal boat maintenance as well as the “normal” operation of various power tools.
Twelve members of the public came before the assembly to speak on the ordinance. The majority were opposed to it. A common point made by several members of the public was that this ordinance was being made only because of two feuding neighbors: Scott Eastaugh and Haig Demerjian. Several people said that the city should not be brought into an argument between two people, that this ordinance would only drive a wedge in the community. Wrangell resident Dale Parkinson said that it was disturbing that one person could come before the assembly with a chip on his shoulder about a neighbor, and get a law passed that directly targeted them.
Eastaugh spoke at the meeting and contended that Demerjian knew that he worked on a lot of motor vehicles on his property, such as cars, boats, and snowmobiles, well before they became neighbors. Since then, the police have been called on Eastaugh over the amount of noise he was making. Eastaugh said that he has never done anything to be spiteful, and has tried to be a good neighbor, but that this ordinance was nothing but a vendetta and would cause more problems in the whole community.
Demerjian, who spoke at the meeting via telephone, did not comment about Eastaugh or the work he did in his shop. He voiced support for the ordinance, but cautioned that some of the exemptions needed to be clarified better. For example, he said that the assembly needed to clarify what constituted “normal” operation of power tools.
Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen interrupted the public comments briefly to explain to the audience that this ordinance was not brought up because of any reported feud between neighbors. The city had been working on updating their nuisance codes overall for quite some time. The Planning and Zoning Commission had honed in on the noise ordinance, specifically, as that ordinance already existed in the borough’s codes. It may have become connected to outside events in people’s minds, she said, but this was not directly targeted for or against anybody in Wrangell.
Another common argument against the ordinance was the decibel level that was set. Parkinson and another town resident brought decibel readers into the meeting with them, and showed the assembly that the meeting itself was hovering between 70 and 80 decibels by itself. Power tools, boat maintenance, even opening a garage door would easily be outside the permitted noise level. Assembly Member David Powell pointed out that, according to research he had done, the average person spoke at a level of 60 decibels. He spoke at a higher level of 75 to 80 decibels, he admitted, getting some laughter from the public, but the average speaking volume was 60.
After some discussion, it was agreed by most of the assembly that this ordinance was not yet ready to be adopted. Assembly Member Patty Gilbert suggested that the word “personal” be struck from the proposed exemption on personal boat maintenance, so as to avoid accidentally banning people from working on fishing or charter vessels on their own property. She also proposed that maintenance be included in the allowed exemptions under the use of motor vehicles. Powell had some suggestions, as well. Mainly, he proposed that the hours and decibel levels be changed. His suggestion was that the ordinance read noises above 95 decibels were prohibited from the hours of 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Monday through Saturday, and from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sundays. All other hours would have the decibel level lowered to 60. After some further discussion it was agreed to postpone the vote on the ordinance while these suggestions were given further consideration.
Wrangell’s ongoing power issues were also briefly discussed in the meeting. Thanks to the communities of Wrangell and Petersburg switching to diesel power, the daily draft of Tyee Lake is reportedly at 1/10 of a foot per day. Swan Lake, which typically supplies hydropower to Ketchikan, is also slowly beginning to refill. Von Bargen added that the project to purchase two diesel generators from Nome was moving along smoothly, but was ongoing. Mayor Steve Prysunka added that the Southeast Alaska Power Agency has agreed to pay back Wrangell for its use of diesel generators up to April 1, at which time the SEAPA board will revisit the discussion of how to pay back the communities for this power crisis and how to ensure it never happens again.
The board also approved of supplemental compensation for the borough manager during this meeting, and approved of a list of 2019 federal legislative priorities. Before concluding the meeting, they broke into a brief executive session to discuss the borough’s response to litigation brought forward by Wrangell resident Kipha Valvoda, who contends that several former and present borough officials have been discriminatory and have played favorites when hiring people.
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