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APPROVED 2/5/2002 <br />MINUTES <br />ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />REGULAR MEETING <br />November 7, 2001 <br />The Orange County Board of Commissioners met in regular session on Wednesday, <br />November 7, 2001 at 7:30 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. <br />COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Stephen H. Halkiatis and Commissioners Margaret <br />W. Brown, Alice M. Gordon, and Barry Jacobs <br />COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Moses Carey, Jr. <br />COUNTY ATTORNEY PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill <br />COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John M. Link, Jr., Assistant County Manager Rod <br />Visser and Clerk to the Board Beverly A. Blythe (All other staff members will be identified appropriately <br />below} <br />NOTE: ALL DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THESE MINUTES ARE IN THE PERMANENT <br />AGENDA FILE IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE. <br />PUBLIC CHARGE <br />Chair Halkiotis dispensed with the reading of the public charge. <br />1. ADDITIONS OR CHANGES TO THE AGENDA <br />The board agreed to add a resolution to the agenda. This resolution is entitled "Nuclear Facility <br />Risk Reduction and Security Enhancement." This will be item 5-a. <br />2. CITIZEN & AUDIENCE COMMENTS <br />a. Matters not on the Printed Aaenda <br />Jim Singleton said that he would give three examples of noise. First, is that of a gun, which <br />shoots blanks but sounds like a 12-gauge shotgun. The second example is that of trucks rumbling down <br />the street. The third example is an 18-wheeler trying to go up a hill. He hears this kind of noise every <br />single night on highway 70 East. The highest number of trips was 265 an Palm Sunday of this year. A <br />contractor working for Chandler Concrete operated these trucks. He said that it was not Chandler <br />Concrete's fault and that they are good neighbors. He is requesting an amendment to the Orange <br />County Noise Ordinance. The noise ordinance states that the noise level should be no more than 60 <br />decibels Sunday-Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. and no more than 50 decibels between 11:00 p.m. <br />and 8:00 a.m. He said that the 18-wheelers were generating considerably more than 50 decibels <br />between 11:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. There is an exception to the existing noise ordinance, which is, <br />"Noise measurements shall be taken at the corner of the primary structure," etc. The exception grants <br />an exemption to any noise coming from a motor vehicle properly equipped with the manufacturer's <br />standard mufflers and noise reducing equipment in use and in proper operating condition. He said that <br />probably all of those 18-wheelers coming by his house in the middle of the night are equipped with these <br />mufflers, but they have no proper use of a residential street at that time of day creating that type of noise <br />day in and day out. He said that DOT had a survey set up at his corner and there were aver 200 trucks <br />in an 8-hour period. He requested that the Sheriff monitor the noise level at Lawrence Road and NC70 <br />bypass at least twice a day (early in the morning and late in the afternoon), and if the noise exceeds the <br />decibel level that is in the ordinance that the ordinance be amended to take out the exclusion exempting <br />proper mufflers on everything. He has spoken with the Sheriff, Sergeant Horton {monitors noise for the <br />County}, and the attorney who advises the Sheriff's department many times. They all have expressed <br />sympathy to the problem, but the problem is that the wording of the noise ordinance itself grants an <br />exemption to any of the trucks with the proper mufflers installed by the manufacturer and in proper <br />working condition. A proper muffler an anything does not mean that it meets the noise ordinance. The <br />