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Mayor Ted Ellis had told me, prior to last Tuesday night’s meeting of the Bluffton Common Council, that the city’s noise ordinance would come up for discussion. He said it was in regard to the Crow’s Nest, the concert facility on the second floor of the building at the northeast corner of Market and Johnson streets.
(For those of you without a working knowledge of Bluffton’s downtown, that’s kitty-corner from the Morrow Block, the building which burned Jan. 10.)
The mayor said there had been some complaints about the noise made by the concert. He said he had talked with the young man who operates the Crow’s Nest and they had reviewed the noise ordinance and that there didn’t seem to be much of an “out” for the venue’s continued operation.
He said the young man, Nate Uptgraft, would be at the council meeting. He may have told me that some of his supporters would be there, but if he did, I didn’t remember it.
Friends, let me tell you something. There is nothing that strikes fear into the heart of a government reporter faster than walking into a meeting five or 10 minutes before it’s scheduled to start and seeing, unexpectedly, a room full of people. That means that there’s something hot up for discussion. There are some people who come to Common Council meetings just because the council is meeting; for the most part, those are council members themselves. I’ve been to some meetings where, as a reporter, I’ve been the only member of the “public” present.
I’ve been to meetings where there were a whole bunch of people present and the cops were called, just to be on hand if needed. That’s because, as noted before, the topic is usually a hot one. Hot as in heated. Heated as in hot under the collar.
The anger at many of those too-crowded-for-the-room meetings has been fanned by people who didn’t know how government works. I remember covering a County Commissioners meeting in a county not far from here when they were discussing a proposal to reopen the old county landfill. Someone had brought forward an idea that this could be done, safely and economically. The commissioners said, OK, take a look and bring us back a proposal. We’ll probably say no, but we’ll look at what you have in mind.
Oh, people were angry. Oh, they were upset. Why, those evil people didn’t even want to listen to what they had to say.
The trouble is, it wasn’t a public hearing. It was a meeting open to the public but it wasn’t a meeting where the public would be allowed to speak. When the meeting broke up and they weren’t allowed to say their piece, they were cranky.
I walked in last Tuesday and found a room full of people, I was apprehensive. When I saw that the group was composed of people in the Crow’s Nest target demographic of 15 to 20 years old, I wondered what we were in for.
My fears, this one night, were misguided.
Nate Uptgraft, assisted by Morris “Moose” Lewis, explained to the council members what was up. Two other young people spoke to the council, stating their names and making excellent points.
Council members were impressed. Me, too.
There is still work to be done on the application of the ordinance. My sense of the council’s mindset is that they want to help the Crow’s Nest make it.
There is something to be said, Ellis said as the discussion was winding down, for people showing up at a council meeting and making their case in a reasonable fashion. He’s absolutely right.
by DAVE SCHULTZ
daves@news-banner.com
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