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When Kris Theilen was campaigning for a seat on the
City Council, he polled Ward 8 residents about their biggest concerns and
kept track of their answers. After hearing about everything from the flouting of
school-zone speed limits to the lack of police presence in area
neighborhoods, Theilen says it soon became obvious that booming car stereos
were one of the ward’s main problems. “The loud stereos had the runaway
[vote],” Theilen says. “I had 250 hash marks for vehicle noise, from
at least 250 different homes in Ward 8, and it seemed like nobody else was
addressing it.”
After hearing countless stories from residents
telling of shaking windows and rattling china cabinets, Theilen decided
that enough was enough. He drafted a vehicle-sound-device ordinance, and it
was unanimously approved by the council Tuesday. The new ordinance states that if a vehicle’s
stereo is creating a nuisance within 75 feet of a public area, the driver
of the vehicle will be subject to a $250 fine on the first offense, a $500
fine on the second offense, and a $750 fine plus impoundment of the vehicle
on the third offense.
Theilen modeled the ordinance on a successful Peoria
law and originally strengthened it to call for impoundment of the offending
vehicle on the second offense. He agreed to amend the ordinance after Ward
7 Ald. Debbie Cimarossa balked at the stiff penalty during Monday’s
meeting of the public-affairs and safety committee. “I just think that’s really
stringent,” she said. “I’m not advocating that car
stereos are not a problem, because they are — they’re a serious
problem. I just think it seems really steep to take the car.”
Theilen introduced another amendment requiring that
written notice be sent to the owner of the vehicle after an offense when
other aldermen voiced concerns that teenage drivers would be receiving
citations while jamming in their parents’ cars. Although he agreed
with the requested changes, Theilen says that the threat of vehicle
impoundment must stick. “You can’t take the teeth out of the
ordinance,” Theilen says. “If you talk to Peoria, the reason
they are having success is because of the threat of the car being taken
away. I honestly hope we don’t have to take the car away — I
hope the threat will be enough.”
Theilen has received community support for the
ordinance, especially from residents in trouble spots such as Golf Road,
Veterans Parkway, Lawrence Avenue, and Monroe Avenue. He says that people
on MacArthur Boulevard told him, “If you can do anything, it would be
amazing, because we’ve been complaining about it for
years.”
Theilen also hopes that the ordinance will help solve
other problems, as it did for Peoria, but will be satisfied if noise in
Springfield is dialed down a notch. “When you’re out at 3 a.m. and 4 a.m.
enforcing the ordinance, you’ll find other things going on —
DUIs, warrants,” Theilen says. “It would be a nice benefit, but
my main concern is helping the people of Springfield who are at their
wits’ end.”
Contact Amanda Robert at arobert@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Jul 12-18, 2007.
