Mayor: SJLH job does not violate law

Libby City Council members, acting upon the recommendation of City Attorney Jim Reintsma, will not take action against Swank Enterprises construction crews for what some see as a violation of a city noise ordinance.

After a meeting between Reintsma, Libby Mayor Doug Roll and Swank Enterprises, the council decided it would not take action against work crews for noise before the 7 a.m. timeframe mentioned in the ordinance.

“We had City Attorney Reintsma review the ordinance again, and he feels the crews are not violating the ordinance in terms of the noise being unreasonable,” Roll said. 

The ordinance states “it is unlawful for any person to make or cause to be made any excessive or unusually loud noise or any noise measured or unmeasured which either annoys, disturbs, injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health peace or safety of any reasonable person of normal sensitivity with the city.”

Then Roll expressed a difference.

“If you have a guy using a jackhammer at 6:30 in the morning to work on his driveway, that would be unreasonable when it could be done later. We don’t feel the (St. John’s) crews are being unreasonable,” Roll said.

Bill and Janese Dirkes of 308 Nevada live adjacent to the construction site, and they say the Swank Enterprises construction crews have been violating the ordinance that forbids noise before 7 a.m. 

At 6:37 a.m. Monday, crews already were moving about the site. Crews were making repairs to a loader, a crane was running and a large hydraulic boom was moving.

“Same old stuff, different day,” Dirkes said. “It’s unbelievable.”

Dirkes said he called police dispatch to make a complaint Monday.

“At about 6:30, I was told there was nobody in Libby (Police) on duty yet, and the county (Sheriff’s Department) didn’t have anyone available,” Dirkes said. “I’m just not getting anywhere.”

At 8:25 a.m. Monday, Dirkes said he had just spoken to Libby Police patrolman Terry Watson who came to hear his complaint. 

“(Watson) told me he’d talk to them, but I don’t look for anything to come of it. I want to believe it, but I’ve talked to the CEO before, too, and that didn’t stop it,” Dirkes said.

Later Monday, Swank Enterprises Construction Supervisor Jim Noffsinger said it was an exceptional day in which his crews were doing a continuous concrete pour of 240 cubic yards, a task that necessitates a long day.

“My guys started at 6 a.m., and we’ll probably be here til 8 o’clock tonight,” Noffsinger said. “We’ll be here until the job gets done.”

Noffsinger said his crews begin work preparation at 6 a.m. and actually start their jobs at 7 a.m on a normal day.

Noffsinger said the only people to complain are the Dirkeses.

“Hey, I’ve got an old folks home right over there, and I haven’t heard one word — one complaint — from anyone there,” Noffsinger said pointing toward Libby Care Center.

“There may be some noise as we get ready (in the morning), but it’s not anything more than I would have done at any other job,” Noffsinger said. “This is a big job for Libby. Right now, I’ve got 50 workers here, and soon I’ll have more than 100. I’ve been doing jobs all over like this for 23 years, and this is nothing out of the ordinary.”

Noffsinger’s definition of “ordinary” and Roll’s idea of “reasonable” differ from that of Dirkes, which is where the rub lies.

Still, there is construction noise before 7 a.m., a point not wasted on City Councilman Allen Olsen.

“It just looks bad,” Olsen said. “It looks like we have one set of laws for our residents and another set for contractors. The laws need to be the same for everyone.”

Olsen punctuated his comments by saying he is not against the hospital and its expansion. 

“What’s right is right. Mr. Dirkes has every right to complain. (Swank Enterprises) is breaking the law by creating a noise before 7 in the morning if it’s offensive,” Olsen said.

Dirkes has complained to city leaders about the early construction starts, appearing before the City Council on two occasions. The morning after his initial appearance in December, he received a ticket for parking on the street.

“It was a Tuesday morning after (the first time) I talked to the City Council,” Dirkes said. “They weren’t even (snow) plowing on this day, and I had to pay $50 to unhook my truck from the wrecker and pay a $35 fine for parking on the street.”

Roll, for his part, has tried to be peacemaker. 

“It just comes down to being reasonable,” Roll said. “We don’t think the noise is unreasonable.”

The $32 million St. John’s Lutheran Hospital project is scheduled for completion in May 2014.