Lobster Pound music amplifiers will be on until midnight for weekend festival

The Weirs Beach Lobster Pound will be able to proceed with its complete plans for a Labor Day Weekend "Rock Lobster Music Festival" because City Council last night agreed to temporarily not enforce an ordinance that prohibits permitted outdoor loudspeakers from being used after 10 p.m. Owner MIchael Ray told councilors he had booked musical acts that will play in a tent set up in the restaurant's lower parking lot on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night until 12:30 a.m.

City officials are going to monitor the sound levels so that they will be able to better discuss the matter when they next meet on Sept. 8. A meeting of the subcommittee on Government Operations and Ordinances was set for 6:30 p.m. on that date.

The issue arose because at least of couple of neighbors have complained about the amplified sound coming from the restaurant's south, second-story deck this summer and it was discovered that the city had erred in granting an outdoor loudspeaker permit that was good until midnight each night through Oct. 31.

City Manager Eileen Cabanel told the council that when the Lobster Pound made application for a permit in May the regular licensing clerk was out on maternity leave and her substitute did not catch the fact that the restaurant was asking for hours beyond the limits of the ordinance. The Licensing Board apparently did not notice either because it approved the application on June 4.

Cabanel reminded the council that the language in the ordinance overrides the permit that was granted and suggested it would have to amend the ordinance if it wanted the Lobster Pound to continue its current practice. She said that in making that recommendation, however, she was unaware of the restaurant's plans for the "Rock Lobster Music Festival" this coming weekend.

Ray said he already committed something in the neighborhood of $25,000 for entertainment for the festival.

Massachusetts resident Joni Roberge was in the audience and she told councilors that she was one of the people who had complained about the volume of the music coming from the Lobster Pound. She owns a cottage across Rte. 3 from the restaurant (28 Veterans Ave.) and called the music "an invasion of privacy" because it is "significantly loud".

Roberge said she did not object to the type of music being played on a regular basis — according to the restaurant, the music is karaoke and 2 or 3-person combos, not "heavy metal rock and roll bands" — but added that "nobody can get any sleep or hear anything" when the amplifiers are turned on.

According to Ray, the first complaint was lodged a couple of weeks ago by the proprietors of the adjacent Weirs Beach Drive-In Theater. Police came to the restaurant to check things out, he said, and later reported they did not believe sound levels reaching the Drive-In to be at all excessive.

Roberge was the next to complain and it was then that is was discovered that the city ordinance limits the use of outside speakers to no later than 10 p.m., except during Motorcycle Week.

Led by Mayor Matt Lahey, the council struggled with what it could or should legally do about the situation until the one-week exception was suggested as a temporary compromise.

Roberge said she could live with the idea and Ray predicted moving the sound amplifiers to the street level for the coming festival would help mitigate the loudness of the music reaching her property. Ray said the speakers are currently aimed toward the highway and that could also be changed.

The council was not unanimous in its decision. Councilor Brenda Baer (Ward 4) voted "no" without explanation. She did not participate in the discussion.

Councilor Henry Lipman (Ward 3) was absent.

The Lobster Pound was represented at the meeting by Laconia attorney Phil Brouillard. He told councilors his client has been granted a permit to amplify music as late as midnight and should "not have to suffer" because an error was made.

"It is a very short season for my clients and to deprive them of the business that the music on the deck attracts would be devastating in light of their investment and short season," he wrote in a letter that was addressed to the mayor and council.

Brouillard also reminded the council that the Lobster Pound was an "eating and drinking establishment in a Commercial Resort Zone — the entertainment capital of central New Hampshire" and suggested it should look at "streamlining" the loudspeaker ordinance to "enhance tourism in the area".

The attorney said the sound amplifier being used on the deck was no larger than the one in City Council chambers that is used to project the councilors' own voices.

Because City Council will not meet again for two weeks, Ray asked that he be given a exception to the 10 a.m. rule for the entire time period but Cabanel strongly advised against that request and the councilors agreed with her.