Description

Casella was moving construction waste between ~5:15am and 5:45am around Bank and Church Streets. The driver was swapping a dumpster with construction debris. I spoke with the driver and he said he was told to do it at this time to avoid cars. I told him the noise ordinance prohibits machinery and construction noise "except in emergency situations” between 9pm and 7am. This was not an emergency. The noise ordinance is at the below links:

https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/CJC/Noise-Ordinance-and-Fines
http://www.myburlingtonapartment.com/BURLINGTONNOISECONTROLORDINANCE.pdf

I called the Burlington Police with the Casella driver and requested that an officer come out to meet with us. The driver left before the officer arrived. When the driver left, I called the police back to tell them they no longer needed to come. Instead I spoke with sergeant Tom Nash on the phone. I asked him to issue a ticket. He opened incident 18bu27200 for this incident. I gave him the truck’s DOT#682884 and the license plate # BLP994. He said he would call Casella. Sergeant Nash said tickets for this kind of incident are generally issued for $50, so they aren’t much of a deterrence. I asked why the ticket wouldn’t be for $200 as given on the city’s website (https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/CJC/Noise-Ordinance-and-Fines). He said the amount of the fine is determined by the prosecutor. He said I would also need to provide a sworn statement and I said I would be willing to do that.