city services fail

[artguychris.livejournal.com]

Heard power tools at a construction site at 6:30am.  Not the first time, so I called 911.  They said to call the police station's main #, 625-1600.  No answer.  Called 311.  No answer.   There's was no indication that the hours are 9-5!  I waited on hold for a looong time.  I didn't find hours until I went to submit a ticket online.  Grrr!!

Is it safe to assume the police station is open 24/7?

Comments

[skate97.livejournal.com]

Isn't 6:30 AM within the allowed times for them to start work? Most of my husbands's family are union laborers, and 6:30 to start actually sounds kind of late to me.

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

It appears to be 7am when both construction noise and home-power-tools noise are allowed to start - municipal code is here:
http://library.municode.com/HTML/11580/level4/PII_C9_AVII_D2.html#PII_C9_AVII_D2_s9-116

[skate97.livejournal.com]

Ah, that makes sense. I know my hubby and his brother's jobs in Boston have started as early as 5, but they must not be doing demo/etc. at that time, just the prep stuff.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

You called 911 for noise? Seriously?

this.

[enhf94.livejournal.com]

this. this this this

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

yeah no shit

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

I've tried calling the non-emergency number for Somerville PD (in re a noise complaint) and been told to call 911.

[freckles42.livejournal.com]

Every time I call the non-emergency number for a noise complaint (I have neighbors who play their music so loud I can hear it over the TV and a/c at midnight) they tell me to call 911.

[grapefruiteater.livejournal.com]

I've called the non-emergency number many times about noise (both Cambridge and Somerville, since I live on the border) and not been told to call 911.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

That was my first thought, too!

[ursamajor]

That's what I've been told to do by the cops when I call the non-emergency number (and this has been my experience in Cambridge, Somerville, and Boston). I don't know if it makes a difference that the noise complaints I make have historically been for loud partygoers out of control *after* a reasonable hour at night, as compared to construction workers or such being loud *before* a reasonable hour in the morning ...

[dcltdw]

Heard power tools at a construction site

Do you mean "jackhammers working on a street" or do you mean "circ saws in a yard"?

Is it safe to assume the police station is open 24/7?

I assume it's open 24/7 for emergencies and 9-5 for non-emergencies, which seems to be your experience.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I've called in middle-of-the-night noise complaints to the nonemergency police number (ah, drunken karaoke at 2am for a party many hours long by then...no; no, you lose).

[skate97.livejournal.com]

I think late night party calls are probably more listened to then 6:30 AM construction calls?

[dcltdw]

Oh hey, good point. I do have Arlington PD's number (I live in Arlington, not Somerville) in my Contacts, and I call that number rather than 911. So I guess I actually do expect that number to be attended outside of 9-5.

google "noise ordinance somerville +MA"

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

Somerville, Massachusetts, Code of Ordinances >> PART II - CODE OF ORDINANCES >> Chapter 9 - OFFENSES AND MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS >> ARTICLE VII. - OFFENSES AGAINST PUBLIC PEACE >> DIVISION 2. - NOISE CONTROL ORDINANCE >> Section 9-116 (3) states:

Construction. It shall be unlawful to operate or permit the operation of any tools, piledrivers, hammers, or equipment used in construction, drilling, or demolition work between the hours of 7:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m., Monday through Saturday, and anytime on Sunday, such that the sound therefrom creates a noise disturbance.

[lac.livejournal.com]

I got this from bouncing around the Somverville Gov site:

Construction. It shall be unlawful to operate or permit the operation of any tools, piledrivers, hammers, or equipment used in construction, drilling, or demolition work between the hours of 7:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m., Monday through Saturday, and anytime on Sunday, such that the sound therefrom creates a noise disturbance.

But I don't know? Do you really want to quibble over 30 minutes? And they start setting up at 6:30 generally. I think Boston proper is 7 am as well.

As for the police station, I think if you're calling really early or really late....they expect it to be an emergency, otherwise, their business hours are 9-5 I bet.

[xuth.livejournal.com]

Somerville's website suggests that you should be able to call the non-emergency number 24x7.

And yes I would quibble over 30 minutes especially if it's my sleep that's being compromised and if it were at all a regular occurrence.

[lac.livejournal.com]

Ah, I didn't dig that deep which is why I added the "I bet", not being sure.

And let me elaborate...if it were once, I'd probably let it go and I hate being woken up, being a light sleeper. If it happened the next day, I would most definitely say something. But a one off occurence, even I...Miss Crankypants...would let go.

[kpht.livejournal.com]

You could've just found the construction guys and told them they can't start till 7 and you'd appreciate it if they cut it out until then so you could sleep a bit.

[xuth.livejournal.com]

My experience (in all of two times that I've complained) has been that this doesn't work. When I've taken the time to wake up enough to realize what's going on, get clothes on and walk across to complain and to realize that they're going to ignore you anyway, it's approaching 7. And Medford police insisted that they want to personally see it happening before they'll do anything about it so calling after 7 does no good. The next morning when I called Medford police at 6:15, the noise stopped in 10 minutes. I have no idea why somerville would not answer their non-emergency number after hours. Unless you called someone's desk specifically.

On a complete tangent, this is one aspect that I liked about Cambridge. The noise ordinance there only allows noisy construction/demolition after 9:00.

[kpht.livejournal.com]

True. I'd rent a baby or something. Or just claim you have a baby and pregnant wife who can't sleep. If there's one thing they respect, oddly, it's young kids trying to sleep. I know that's completely effed, but it's the only way we can get our crappy contractor to fix stuff is when we say ITS FOR THE CHILDRENS.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

On a complete tangent, this is one aspect that I liked about Cambridge. The noise ordinance there only allows noisy construction/demolition after 9:00

don't know if this is case by case, or a new change, but not true.... the rounder records building on Cameron Ave is coming down now, and they are allowed to start their demolition at 7am.

[artguychris.livejournal.com]

The law is the law. These guys should respect the 7am start time or should face penalties. I've been ticketed for being 5 minutes over at a meter, so why should they get off for "only" 30 minutes?

I've let it go for a long time, but they routinely start at 6:30 and sometimes as early as 6 and it's been going on for months. I'm fed up.

[lac.livejournal.com]

Oh heck, in that case....I would definitely raise the roof...that's not at all acceptable!

[skexy.livejournal.com]

I noticed in the metro this morning a piece about somerville PD's communications being all fubar from the flooding last week; probably why you had trouble getting them.

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

Can you call the construction company during business hours today and talk to them about it? Same for 311. Maybe this will keep them from starting early again tomorrow.

Somerville PD direct Line is Down

[lfitzb.livejournal.com]

They told you to call 911 because the entire communication system for the central PD is down due to the flooding two weeks ago.

It's going to cost hundreds of thousands to fix, but are waiting on federal aid.

hopefully this is a good enough explanation for your inconvenience. Good luck with the noise ordinance thing. It is annoying to be woken up so early.

Re: Somerville PD direct Line is Down

[artguychris.livejournal.com]

No, 911 told me to call the regular police station #. I hope they would know--and wouldn't have me call there--if the main # wasn't working!

Re: Somerville PD direct Line is Down

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

It's totally ridiculous that the non-emergency police number is broken several days after the flooding. For an urgent situation like this, the phone company should be able to turn on call forwarding within a matter of minutes.

A cautionary note

[ringrose.livejournal.com]

On a related note, as of a few years ago what applies to a construction site does not apply to the DPW.

I was woken at the crack of dawn by an enormously loud wood chipper. I complained, and discovered that the DPW can just declare it time-sensitive, or emergency, or something and they're exempt from the time restrictions.

Re: A cautionary note

[xuth.livejournal.com]

Call me crazy, but running a wood chipper is never time sensitive. Running a chainsaw to clear a downed tree from the road? Sure^*. Running the wood chipper to ease the disposal of some of the debris? Absolutely not.

* As an aside, it would be nice if quieter tools would be preferred after hours (ie electric or even hand tools). They are typically a bit slower to use and maybe less convenient (needing to recharge batteries or run electric cords from the truck). And it would not be for situations like after a major storm with lots of trees down. But then this is coming from someone who uses electric and manual yard tools for my lawn so that I'm not being all that loud even during the day.

Re: A cautionary note

[anyee.livejournal.com]

Maybe the trees might explode unless dealt with ASAP?