Me too ...
Posted on 04/14/2009 9:34:09 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
They say good fences make good neighbors, but at Olympia Elementary School, a fence was not nearly enough.
Late last month, police issued Principal Terri LeBleu a citation for violation of the Universal City noise ordinance after a neighbor who has long complained about commotion at the school called again during its Family Fitness Day.
Officials with both Judson Independent School District and the Universal City Police Department say the district has taken several steps to try to restore relations with Butch Armstrong.
“They’ve built a 7-foot fence at the back of the school,” LeBleu said. “They’ve put special backing on the basketball hoops because he doesn’t like hearing the basketball hit, and they’ve even taken out the loudspeakers that allowed me to make announcements to the kids who are outside, so now I’m not able not do that.”
Finally, police said, they had no choice but to issue a citation.
Armstrong said the fence has helped to buffer the sound between the school and his home on Ulysses, a short street running behind the schoolyard, but noise is still a problem. He would like the district to change a traffic pattern that has a long line of cars dropping off and retrieving children at the rear of the school and to monitor the property so community members do not use the school grounds on nights and weekends.
“Each morning and afternoon there’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 208 cars that pass our bed,” Armstrong said.
He said the school was initially a pleasant neighbor but has grown in recent years, adding portable classrooms and more buses to accommodate extra students. Olympia has an enrollment of about 700 students, 200 of them added in the past five years, according to state data.
During the March 20 fitness event, parents were invited to walk the track with their children.
“We had some music playing, and that’s probably what started some of his concerns,” said LeBleu, who also said she’s had no complaints about noise except Armstrong’s.
But neighbor Bob Brown, whose house is also on Ulysses, said noise has been an increasing problem at the school. Brown praised Superintendent Willis Mackey for his willingness to work with residents, including building the fence between the schoolyard and a row of nine houses.
Still, on the day of the fitness event, Brown said, he could feel the ground vibrate.
“Like I was standing in the middle of the mosh pit at a rock concert and Ozzy Osbourne was up there,” he said.
Another neighbor on the block said she notices school traffic — less so since the fence was installed — but is not particularly bothered by the noise.
“I guess I’ve just gotten acclimated to it,” Janie Sanchez said.
According to a Universal City police report, Armstrong told an officer that “police, fire, ambulances and the USAF training jets are not unreasonable, but the noise coming from the elementary school was.”
The officer wrote: “In my experience as a police officer and being of normal and ordinary sensibilities, I felt the noise was not unreasonable and is common for an elementary school.”
Assistant Chief of Police Bill Gabbard said his officers have no way of monitoring the decibel level of noise at the school.
LeBleu has rallied supporters to press the City Council for changes to the noise ordinance that would make schools exempt from it.
Parent-Teacher Organization president Michael Colwell attended the Family Fitness Day and is one those supporters.
“I don’t see where someone gets off buying a house next to a school and expects it to be 100 percent quiet 100 percent of the time. I think it’s a stupid idea,” said Colwell, a parent of two Olympia students.
A court date on the noise citation is set for May 12.
It was a special event. He needs to stop being a jerk and let the kids have fun.
Your point illustrates why I would NEVER buy a home near a school.
Even if I had school aged kids.
Too much hassle.
Those kids should be quiet, stay inside, put their noses to the grindstone, get their education and get to work to pay Butch’s social security./s
We thought it would be okay because we were about a block away and not on the same street.
We also spent a lot of time there during the day to make sure it seemed okay.
I never minded hearing kids outside running around. I didn’t mind hearing the marching band practice. I didn’t even mind crowds cheering on Saturday football games.
The parking situation was what really got us upset, especially because the principal did nothing to help us. I was thankful for actually 2 cops in our neighborhood. If there was a problem with a kid, we would write down the license plate. The cops would go over to the kid’s house and talk to the parents. It was a year of the cops working on the situation, but it helped. I don’t think it’s ever been a problem since.
I will say I would have fought having the lights added to the football stadium. I would not have wanted to live with that going on. Our new neighborhood is very quiet is not near any schools.
I have a neighbor who calls the animal control every single time my dogs bark. When they are outside the bark a few times at a jogger but are then quiet. Mostly they are inside holding down the couch. This is a young guy and animal control has called him “as a$$hole”. This guy also complains about the noise the kids make while playing.
The F-22s may be a little louder than conventional aircraft, but they are by far the most quiet super-sonic jet in existence today, even when flying at sub-sonic speeds, including takeoff. FWIW
I looked this School's location up on Google Maps and Street View. If anything, noise and traffic complaints would be coming from the houses on Athenian Dr, which is right across the street from the school, NOT from the school's rear property line which is an open field and 'nearest' to the houses on Ulysses.
And like some noted these house on Ulysses are NEW so all the owners knew their lot backed up to a school's when they purchased and moved in.
And for that goof who said the 'ground shook'... you're full of it.
We have the same idiots here they move close to the race track then complain about the noise, then there is the other idiots who buy a house on the lake and complain about the air boats.
Did not know that. It must be the frequency of engine or something, because I could tell a difference when the AF started flying them, but then I am deaf in one ear and can't hear out of the other.
We literally live in between two schools. Our front door faces the back door of one of the Catholic schools here in town. The other school is on the street behind us on the corner (I can look out my back door and see the school easily)—it’s a public school. (FWIW, our kids attend another Catholic school 1.5 miles away)
We knew when we bought this house 19 months ago that there were two schools north and south of us. The difference between us and this moron in this story is that we know that the noise only lasts so many hours a day and so many days a week and so many months a year. Other than hearing the kids in the Catholic school outside during recess and a bell from the public school now and again, it’s not that bad. I have more issues with the wanna be hoods who drive around blaring their ghetto music in this area late at night than some kids going to school.
those houses are CLOSE to the back of the school. nice houses, too. 'ol butch did well for himself.
I live next to a school, and they are the best neighbors in the world. The school is in session from 8:00 am-2:30 pm, and the’re gone all summer
When I was a kid, schools did not set up too many activities outside. If the man is elderly, maybe he didn’t realize that schools are noisier now.
I know my kids’ schools have had very noisy Walk-a-thons where they play very loud music over a PA system all day long on a Saturday. My kids have been to outdoor movies out in the playground till 10 at night with a loud PA system blaring the movie. I’ve been to a festivals at the kids’ school with PA systems blaring loud music until 9 or 10 at night.
I didn’t have any of that when I was a kid. We basically went to school and played outside. Open house was twice a year inside the school, and we had plays and musicals inside the school.
Also, when I was a kid basically everyone walked to school or took a bus so there wasn’t traffic at schools like there is today.
If the guy is elderly, then he just may not know about schools these days. It seems like the school could tone down the outdoor PA.
My personal favorite is the nitwit from an urban setting in California who moved to a ranch in Arizona. He complained because he could hear gun fire on his neighbor’s property.
Sounds like my kind of place.
The officers could just as well have cited the old coot for making silly/frivolous calls to dispatch.
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