Marching bands in Carroll County got the ear of state lawmakers.
Now the legislature?s on the verge of passing a bill that would exempt the bands from a county noise ordinance.
Backers say they hope that would prevent disputes like one last year that led a homeowner near Liberty High School in Eldersburg to complain about the band?s evening practices. That, in turn, prompted the county to start a compliance investigation.
“If we can?t practice outside, there?s no place else to practice,” said Steve Guthrie, Carroll?s assistant superintendent. “In effect it would kill the marching band program. It would take away a good activity, a healthy activity for our students to participate in.”
The county?s investigation resulted in a 34-page report recommending that the school plant a line of trees to buffer the sound or move the band?s practice away from nearby houses.
But those options could cost $130,000, said Superintendent Charles Ecker. Moving the band would require new lighting and planting trees to deflect the music would not be practical, he said.
The ordeal made national news at the end of last summer when resident Scott Friedly filed complaints that the band?s fall practices from 6 to 9 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays kept his 2-year-old daughter from sleeping and rattled the home?s windows.
The band played too loudly for the county?s 65-decibel noise limit, which is about as loud as a normal conversation, when sheriff?s deputies took readings from Friedly?s back porch.
But deputies never ticketed the school because it would not be in the spirit of the law, said Lt. Phil Kasten, a spokesman for the sheriff?s office.
The bill would exempt all schools from the noise ordinance between 8 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. It passed the House unanimously is expected to be voted out of a Senate committee tomorrow, said Republican Sen. Larry Haines, chairman of the Carroll delegation.
“I don?t see why anyone would” object to it, Haines said. “I think everything will pass.”
