By Leah Justice

leah.justice@tryondailybulletin.com

 

Polk County Commissioners heard a plea this week to help give a neighborhood peace from barking dogs.

Commissioners met Monday, Jan. 11 and heard from Gottfried Schlembach, who said nearby coon dogs begin barking around 7 p.m. and bark until 7 a.m. The area is off West Fork Creek Road in the Saluda Township and he said the property has about a half a dozen dogs and some roosters.

Schlembach said he has spoken to Polk County Animal Control Officer Michael Herman as this has caused quite a bit of problems with the neighbors.

“Evidently there is no noise ordinance in this county concerning dogs,” Schlembach said.

Schlembach told commissioners he loves dogs but this is causing problems with people getting sleep and affecting their quality of life.

Schlembach said the problem is that the owner of the dogs and property lives in Henderson County and owns the property in Polk. According to Schlembach, the property owner comes to feed the dogs.

“It’s just really getting to the point of just ridiculous,” said Schlembach. “That’s my plea.”

He said one of his neighbors has decided to sell her house and move back to downtown Dayton, Ohio so she can live in peace and quiet if commissioners can imagine that.

He submitted a letter to commissioners he said was written by a neighbor. The letter was not signed.

Commissioners directed Polk County Manager Marche Pittman to speak with Schlembach about what can be done. Schlembach also said Herman was working with animal control in Henderson County to see if anything can be done.

In 2013, after pleas from two communities urging the county to enact a noise ordinance, commissioners decided not to enact noise restrictions. Particular complaints at the time were coming from the Silver Creek Community, where neighbors said excessive gunshots could be heard at all hours. The Silver Creek Community is located in the White Oak Township, which is not zoned. The majority of commissioners said at the time they were not in favor of noise regulations county-wide. Because Silver Creek is in an unzoned area, the county would have had to enact an ordinance for the entire county.

Commissioners looked at Henderson County’s noise ordinance in 2013 with some commissioners saying the nearby ordinance was very vague, would be difficult to define what classified as excessive noise, and difficult to enforce.

Residents from Silver Creek who attended commissioner meetings in 2013 said they would be in favor of the area being zoned in order to take care of the problems. Commissioners at the time said they would only zone an area if 100 percent of the property owners in the area were in favor of being zoned.

The letter Schlembach presented to commissioners about the West Fork Creek area dogs said several of the dogs seemed to be distressed, resulting in hours upon hours of barking, howling and moaning.

“We have all lived here many years in a peaceful and cooperative environment until the animals arrived on the hill,” states the letter. “Several people have talked about selling their homes but cannot afford to do so and besides, who would buy here with the noise. It would be impossible to cover up. We are all concerned about the well being of the dogs as well. The barking is not protective but desperate. We could tolerate occasional barking to keep predators away but the barking is constant and loud and most likely calls for attention, food or companionship.”