Student asking for noise flexibility on Mifflin

by Cara Harshman

Thursday, April 24, 2008 00:17

A University of Wisconsin student petitioning to lessen noise violations for music at the annual Mifflin Street Block Party met with two city officials Wednesday afternoon, attempting to reach a compromise.

UW junior Tom Wangard has gathered 143 signatures from residents on Mifflin, Bassett, Broom, Bedford, and Dayton streets and West Washington Avenue on a petition to ease the Madison Police Department’s enforcement of excessive noise citations at the May 3 party.

Wangard met with MPD Captain Mary Schauf and mayoral aide Joel Plant to explain the point of view of those who signed the petition on MPD’s definition of “reasonable noise.”

“If someone wants to sit in his house on Mifflin Street the afternoon of Mifflin, he should be able to do that and hear the program he’s watching,” Schauf said.

While Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said he appreciates the compromise the police made last year to let bands and DJs alone as long as they could not be heard three houses away, he is still bothered by all the complaints he received last year from residents saying their music was shut down and that they received noise citations.

Before Wangard’s meeting with Schauf and Plant, Verveer said he tried to convince each official to “lighten up on the music issue,” something he has been asking for in the past few years.

“I’m looking for a little further comfort for Mifflin residents and any musicians that will be performing that afternoon,” Verveer added.

According to Schauf, a prominent concern with loud music is the safety threat it poses to communication between police officers patrolling Mifflin Street. When the volume reaches an “outrageous” level where police cannot hear each other through handheld radios, Schauf said officers try to talk with the residents and be “reasonable about it.”

Officers will write $172 noise citations to residents who repeatedly fail to comply with requests to turn the noise down.

UW senior Steve Brinker, who lives on the 500 block of Mifflin Street, said Schauf’s concern with officer-to-officer communication “actually makes some sense to me.”

“I didn’t even think about that; they should be able to hear radios, especially now when there’s been murders around,” Brinker said.

Officers will appear at Verveer’s Mifflin Street resident briefing meeting Tuesday to review the do’s and don’ts of the block party. Wangard said he hopes students attend the meeting in which he will present the petition to police to show students’ unhappiness with the citations.

Wangard said he realizes the point of the three-house rule but wants to set a standard for what noise level is unreasonable to not hear the radio.

“There are times when I’m on State Street and I can’t hear my cell phone because of all the talking noise,” he said.

Verveer’s meeting will be held Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Madison Senior Center, 330 W. Mifflin St., next to the Capitol Centre Market.