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At Andover City Council meeting on July 16, member held a discussion regarding possibly enacting a noise amplification ordinance that would restrict volumes after a person used an amplification device to express their religious viewpoints during the city Fun Fest on the weekend of July 12, interfering with other attendees.
Andover mayor Sheri Bukkila brought the issue forward after receiving a recent complaint regarding the volume of public speech in the city stemming from that incident.
Bukkila said that the City Administrator had made a similar complaint, and that she had brought the City Attorney to hear of the matter.
“One individual who was there’s exercising his freedom of speech with an audio enhancement device while the band was playing,” Bukkila said. “It caused a considerable distraction within a 30 foot distance of the individual.”
Bukkila asked whether this issue was something that fell under current Andover statutes. Anoka Police Commander Paul Lenzmeier said that they had notified the individual of what he was doing, and asked him to stop. The behavior, Lenzmeier said had impeded people from walking freely.
“I would put that right (that he was trying to exercise) as being allowed to vocalize without being disorderly,” Lenzmeier said. “He was stopping people in their tracks with an agenda.”
Andover City Attorney Scott Baumgartner, addressing the concerns at the council’s meeting, talked about how this specific case fell under the first amendment.
“One of my other cities has a similar concern with amplified sound,” Baumgartner said. “The difficulty is that there isn’t anything that really suppresses it. The first amendment is what people like to hang their hat on, and the question is how far does that allow you to infringe on other rights?”
Baumgartner connected this explicitly to the issues around loud noise, remarking that it was unclear how far the first amendment went allowing for this in public spaces by groups.
“We looked into that for the other city, and it might be compatible for Andover as well,” Baumgartner said. “They want the freedom to express themselves without blocking others. That is the overstepping that I am looking into with respect to amplified sound.”
Baumgartner confirmed that he knew of certain individuals who went from city to city looking to stir up trouble.
“The next thing that follows is they go to their own attorney,” Baumgartner said. “Some just want to agitate with their first amendment rights. People are pushing the envelope, and we just need to follow up.”
Bukkila said that similar considerations were created for measures around car stereos, and other unacceptable noise levels in relation to property.
“Whether you are in public or private land, it’s about the means with which you do something,” Bukkila said. “People were at the festival to enjoy the band and festivities. Imagine if everyone was audible at a distance of 30 feet or more. What if someone stood out by my mailbox and talked out loud with a device, is that similar? I don’t think laws are keeping up right now with what is a nuisance or disruption to normal tranquility.”
Baumgartner responded by talking about a change in standards to focus on individual rights.
“Sometimes laws forget about other rights, whether it be freedom of expression or another one,” Baumgartner said. “Laws can be a knee-jerk reaction from 0 to 100 without considering other rights protections regarding my or someone else’s rights. It’s a slippery slope, because the First Amendment is tough.”
Baumgartner also discussed how the First Amendment was written at a time when people would stand up to yell on a soap box. Since then, technology has progressed a lot.
“We are considering how to fashion an ordinance without content,” Baumgartner said. “The other city is looking at how to regulate place and manner, just not content.”
The baseline for finding that answer in Minnesota, when examining state law, is difficult.
“Do we have an ordinance for the amplification of sound in public?” Baumgartner said. “If we do that, we can bring it before the council. If that were to happen, all you wouldn’t be allowed to do is amplify sound over normal conversation level.”
Bukkila compared it to how you weren’t allowed to have a motor vehicle with a certain volume of noise traveling around the neighborhood.
“I think of that ordinance as being along the same lines as this,” Bukkila said. “I don’t like creating new law, because it regulates people and behavior. But the minute you interfere with what someone else is doing, we have to have a conversation about property lines and general public peace.”
“Personal disagreement is fine,” Baumgartner said. “The question is over how you say it, and the method of delivery. It’s a very fine line, and I am seeing how we can go about that.”
In response, Bukkila added that the individual was attempting to express their religious views, and that the sound had amplified past both the volume of the band, as well as loud conversation levels.
“I initiated the conversation at the City Council Meeting to coordinate a unified approach among stakeholders to address an issue that came up during the city’s Fun Fest celebration,” Bukkila said. “I would like to focus on the behavior, based on complaints from residents and attendees, regarding the appropriate time, place and manner to allow freedom of speech to occur that does not cause alarm or resentment of others present to enjoy other activities.”
Bukkila noted again that clear guidelines need revisiting to ensure that everyone can freely enjoy festivals and other events in Andover without infringing on the rights of others present.
In other business
The council unanimously approved an award bid for water main improvements across a large strip of road encompassing Crosstown and Andover boulevards , and Prairie Road.
Covering the item briefly, Director of Public Works Dave Berkowitz explained that the move was to extend a water main down Crosstown Boulevard across the railroad tracks to Prairie Road, then north across the woods, where it will tie into the Millers Roads development. It will then loop south along Prairie Road into the Newland Yard developments (the fields at Windslow Cove).
Then, the extension of the water main on Andover Blvd will continue from the railroad tracks east to Prairie Road, and then North Prairie Road.
“It’s quite the water main project,” Berkowitz said.
This award first comes in order to identify a budget adjustment inside the Capital Improvement Plan for $3 million for the initial water main plan in the Capital Improvement Project. Due to the constraints on the water main’s right of way and design, the final dollar amount after the bid is set will be $3,160,000. The $160,000 adjustment will come out of the water trump fund.
The other major aspect to this project is the extension of the sanitary sewer from the railroads along Crosstown Boulevard to Sycamore Street. This was not identified in 2023’s final Capital Improvement Plan, when, in order to serve this sewer area, Andover would have had to get a sanitary sewer in the ground.
“If you were to ever go back in the future and put the sanitary sewer in, you would have to dig up all of the water main that you had just put in,” Berkowitz said.
There were seven different bidders for the project. Berkowitz noted that, even while the money had not been awarded, the new contractor, Douglas Kerr Underground, wants to set up a pre-construction meeting and get started.
“That shows you how hungry the contractors are,” Berkowitz solidagos Kerr was the low bid of the contract.. The sanitary sewer portion of the project will cost $900,000. Berkowitz additionally noted that a lot of funds are recouped through development over time based on development.
City Administrator Jim Dickinson emphasized that Andover would also tie this development back to the Strategic Plan. One of the goals is to explore and identify gaps in critical infrastructure, and per Dickinson, this plan does that.
“One of the things we don’t get into in public meetings is how the system works, and why it is a looping system,” Bukkila said. “For basic security reasons, we don’t talk about this.”
SOURCE: Hometown Source
