Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/239386
Sarasota News Leader January 10, 2014 had she had another sleepless night because of the music from the restaurant "BLASTING directly into our homes hour after hour after hour after hour after hour!" but also that the Sheriff's Office had cited her for a noise violation the previous day. Page 26 stated that we needed to take the measurement from the middle of the waterway." The deputies responded that they would not be able to do that. They also advised Chapman that Bob's Boathouse was not in violation of the noise ordinance. When Chapman and her neighbor continued to insist on a reading from the waterway, the deputy added in the report that he and his fellow officers "tried to explain that was an unreasonable request and further tried to explain that if the reading wasn't over the limit at approximately 200 feet from the band [at Bob's] it was not going to be over the limit in the middle of the waterway as that is a greater distance from the band, but none of the subjects were satisfied." Chapman wrote that she and several of her neighbors were using megaphones to communicate with each other "over the LOUD music" when deputies showed up. She added, "[T]o our dismay, we found out that as private citizens, WE are not allowed to object to this assault at the same decibel levels that Bob's Boathouse is using. Apparently, it is against a very strict code for any individual to use amplified sound equipment and I was given a warning by the Sheriff's Office to stop making myself heard by the offending business NEXT STEPS? [Chapman's emphasis]." Preisser, the county spokesman, told the News The incident report from the Sheriff's Office Leader that Interim County Administrator says Chapman was cited for "Disturbance/ Harmer plans to initiate another discussion Nuisance/Noise" for an incident called in of Bob's Boathouse during his regular report at 4:27 p.m. on Jan. 5. It adds that deputies at a County Commission meeting next week. responded to the site of Bob's Boathouse in Additionally, Commissioner Patterson has response to a complaint about live music listed an item regarding the county's noise being too loud. While there, deputies observed a person "yelling through an amplified ordinance under her part of the commissionmegaphone." Then a call came in from the dis- ers' reports. patcher saying someone had complained on Montclair Drive "that her neighbor across the street … was outside with a bull horn yelling, 'We hate the music; turn it down,' repeatedly and then got out a flute and began to play it." When three deputies and a sergeant spoke with Chapman and a neighbor at Chapman's house, the report says, Chapman and the neighbor "became extremely belligerent and In the meantime, Wendy Rose, the community affairs manager for the Sheriff's Office, told the News Leader on Jan. 9, "Our current position is we would encourage Bob's Boathouse management to follow the lead of other establishments that were in similar situations to reach out to affected residents and start conversations seeking to become a better neighbor." %