After eight months of research, revision, debate and dissection, Nashville’s noise ordinance is back on the town council agenda, at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4 at Town Hall.

Town council President Bob Kirlin doesn’t expect a vote to be taken on the latest draft until the Oct. 18 meeting at the earliest. At this Thursday’s meeting, "what I would hope to get accomplished is listen to the five members of town council, kind of semi-agree on what should be in there and what shouldn’t," he said. "… There’s a couple three things we want to change, but I don’t think anything major."

First passed in 1970, the current, five-page ordinance has been revised at least twice since then, in 1993 and 2004. But it appears to have been mostly added onto, resulting in some contradictory or cumbersome definitions and measurements of what constitutes noise.

Though some prohibited noises are specified, whether or not sounds are illegal depends largely on volume and sound pressure — which town police can’t measure, because they don’t have those tools.

What committee and town council members are aiming for is a clear, enforceable ordinance that balances the rights of town residents, visitors and merchants, who haven’t all been in agreement on what a "reasonable" level of quiet in town is.

Read the current draft in front of the town council by clicking here.

Read the town ordinance currently in place by following this link: http://www.townofnashville.org/files/Title_IX_-_General_Regulations.pdf. Look under "nuisances."

Read more details in the Oct. 3 Brown County Democrat.