Which Is The Bigger Crime?
By Mitch Berg
That church bells disturb the daytime slumber of another somnolent suburb…:
Fairfax County officials have issued a ringing non-endorsement of the bells at St. John Neumann’s in Reston, ruling that they must toll within the limits of the county’s noise ordinance or not at all.
The Board of Supervisors asked the zoning staff this year to see whether the law could be amended to accommodate the church, whose bells ring at a volume slightly higher than the 55-decibel maximum permitted in residential areas… at an average of 75 decibels (roughly equivalent to a vacuum cleaner at close range), which is considerably above the 55-decibel limit in residential areas.
…that the ‘burb’s government is backing and filling to justify it…:
James P. Zook, director of Fairfax’s Department of Planning and Zoning, recently told the board in a memo that…”Localities cannot enact different standards for noise emanating from a place of worship,” Zook said. If Fairfax did that, he said, the new rules would have to apply to “all other types of bells, chimes or carillons.” Zook noted, however, that at least two other cities, Morgantown, W.Va., and Seattle, did make exceptions for church bells.
…or…:
St. John’s, a Catholic church in south Reston, installed a $50,000 electronic bell system in 2004 as part of a major expansion.
…that the scourge of electronic “bells” continues unabated?
December 5th, 2006 at 7:39 am
Is it an expensive electronic system to control the ringing of physical bells? Or is it a giant CD player playing electronic bells?
It wouldn’t make a difference to my analysis – too loud is too loud – but the former isn’t as great a scourge as the latter.
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