Cumberland Village Council approves exemption to the noise control bylaw for summer concert series
Brown said there are already some ideas to alert residents about the concert series taking place for them to prepare for the late night noise that may occur. Photo: Elevate the Arts / elevatethearts.com
Although the winter weather is still in the air, the Village of Cumberland is already looking forward to their annual summer concert series — and the noise it may bring.
A motion was brought to the Cumberland Village Council meeting on February 27th, for an exemption to the Noise Control Bylaw from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Thursday evenings from July to August. This would allow for their Summer Concert Series performances that take place in the Village Square to run later into the night.
Ryan Parton, acting manager of Parks and Recreation for the village spoke to council about the request for the exemption to the bylaw.
He explained that for the past couple of years, the Village of Cumberland and Elevate the Arts have partnered to put on the Thursday night concert series that runs from 7 p.m. to approximately 9:30 p.m. With current bylaws, the concert would only be able to go until 8 p.m. on Thursdays.
Parton said that last year, the village approved for the bylaw to be exempted until 10 p.m. on Thursday nights for the concerts, with the understanding that the organizer would aim to wrap up the concerts by 9:15 p.m. but had some time in case things got delayed. But after the concert series, village staff thought that 10 p.m. may be too late so this year they recommended 9:30 p.m.
Cumberland mayor, Vicky Brown said it is important that the concert series be allowed to run a bit later in the evening.
“We have a really great partnership with Elevate the Arts and who is a nonprofit that works in the village to bring arts and culture programming, and we've partnered up with them in the last few years to do a concert series in Village Square, which is right downtown,” Brown said. “So we have these family friendly concerts every Thursday through July and August, and council really appreciates them and they bring the community together.”
Last year when the bylaw was exempted until 10 p.m. the village only received one documented noise complaint.
“So we did have one complaint. We do have a lot of people living right in our downtown core, which is great, and some of them have to get up for work really, really early in the morning,” Brown said. “So there was some concern last year with the concerts or just the noise. I'm not even sure if it was the music, but you know, people and music going a bit late.”
During the council meeting, Brown said she would like to see notices for those who live near the area about the concert series.
“It might be nice for the village to put out something that says we've given them an exemption till this time. ‘Heads up, get your earplugs’.” Brown said at the council meeting
Brown told CHLY there are already some ideas about how the village is going to let residents know about the concert series taking place for them to prepare for the late night noise that may occur.
“So we have our local, sort of like our own local newspaper, it's called Currently Cumberland, and it comes out monthly,” Brown said. “So we'll likely advertise in there and let people know that that's happening and that there's been an adjustment to the bylaw for that time.”
Council members voted unanimously in favour of approving the new temporary exemption to the Noise Control Bylaw.
Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.