Atlantic Mayor Dave Jones and Councilman Dana Halder are asking residents to try and resolve any differences they have in-person, when it comes to noise issues. Jones said the City received a letter from a resident who asked the Council to consider creating an ordinance that would address noise issues, especially with regard to lawn mowing and yard waste removal.

Jones said an unidentified female resident called him Saturday night and other members of the Council Sunday morning, to complain about a neighbor who was using a skid loader to remove tree and other yard debris Saturday evening. Halder said he received two calls from the complainant. One came just after 8:30-p.m. Saturday, the other at around 7:30-a.m. Sunday. Halder says he promptly investigated the situation and found no valid reason for the complaint. He said he arrived with 10 minutes of each call received, saw the person operating a skid loader in a valley, cleaning up some brush about 80-yards from the woman’s property line.

Halder said he spoke with another neighbor who said they didn’t have a problem with what was happening. Halder said also, that the man in question had apparently built a new house and was trying to clean-up the brush piles before wet and stormy weather arrived. He said the irony was, that as he was leaving, Halder had the windows down on his vehicle, and could hear the woman talking in her backyard…over the noise of the skid loader.

He said the man with the skid-loader confirmed the next morning that he was trying to get the land waste cleaned-up before the weather. When he arrived Sunday morning, the skid-loader, which he described as having a small motor, was on a trailer. Halder said he thinks the matter could have been handled better by the citizen. He said they need to “work a little harder to get along,” and understand people sometimes can’t mow and work outside when it’s convenient for their neighbors. He says talking with your neighbor when you have an issue, according to Halder, makes for a better level of understanding , and equates to “Honey going a lot farther than salt, I guess.”

He said none of the neighbors he spoke with had a problem with skid loader noise on the days and times in question. Atlantic does have noise ordinances that pertain to Amplified sound, barking dogs, disorderly conduct, engine brakes and identified “Quiet Zones,” but nothing specifically pertaining to the operating of equipment during certain hours.