Susan Lee is no fan of loud music at Dysart et al’s Industrial Park landfill.
On July 23, she visited the facility, recording a video of music blaring at 8 a.m.
She then drove into town, and walked into the Dysart et al office to complain.
She said supervisor of municipal law enforcement, Hailey Cole, initially said she would come to investigate. However, when told it was at the landfill, she claimed bylaw would not respond to her complaint about township staff.
However, Lee said, “there’s a noise bylaw and this was much louder than the noise bylaw. She could have gone.” However, she said she was told all bylaw could do was talk to landfill management.
“Anybody that works anywhere, you can’t have loud music outside. You can’t disturb your neighbours. They must have some kind of policy within their department or on their books …” Lee said.
Cole told The Highlander she advised Lee she could file a complaint.
“Initially, it was described as loud music in town. I incorrectly assumed that meant a neighbour was blasting music which is a violation between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. and could be a violation during the day depending on volume.”
She said although the music was “quite loud,” at the landfill, the bylaw section she would use for loud music during the day is 3.1, that “no person shall emit or cause or permit the emission of unreasonable noise that is clearly audible at a point of reception.”
But Cole said the key is “clearly audible at a point of reception”, for example, a neighbouring property.
“It’s extremely rare for a location to be considered point of reception when it’s on the same property as the source, the only times I’ve seen this happen, it involved multi-tenant buildings,” Cole said.
She said it boiled down to a complaint about conduct of staff; not a bylaw violation.
“Similar to how one would complain about staff at a business, the course of action here would be to speak with the manager of the attendants. I advised I would notify the environmental manager, which I did, she has since spoken to her staff and they have indicated they’ll lower the volume,” Cole said.
But Lee said she isn’t satisfied.
“The neighbours are people coming to dump their garbage. This isn’t the first time. This has been going on for a while. I’ve been waiting until the weather was okay so I could get a recording.
“Dysart et al should be setting an example for everybody else … I don’t like listening to that music. How can they enforce the bylaws when they’re not enforcing them on their own guys?”
