http://www.gcnewsgazette.com/articles/2005/10/06/local_news/news40.txt

Boom cars get tickets on Nov. 1: Police to issue warnings before effective date, court appearances after that

It will be left to judges to decide when boom cars are too loud.

As a result of Monday’s (Oct. 3) Leitchfield City Council action, there will be no city ordinance banning the high-decibel sound of music. Instead, police will issue citations based on a state statute that bans anything on vehicles deemed to be a nuisance or a hazard to public safety.

Chief of Police Greg Dennison said his officers will begin immediately to issue “courtesy notices” to loud cars, either heard directly by an officer or the result of a complaint filed by any city resident.

He said tickets will be issued starting Nov. 1, making anyone ticketed subject to fines and court costs if found guilty by the courts. He said tickets may be issued immediately to “flagrant violator’s of the law, but we want to give people a month to change their ways, to get accustomed to the new procedure.”

Some council members questioned the courtesy notices or warning tickets, saying that the public “wants results on stopping the noise.” But the council agreed to drop its work on a noise abatement ordinance specifically for Leitchfield.

Dennison said he had discussed the ordinance idea with Vine Grove’s police chief, and “he said the state statute (KRS 189.020) as a basis for tickets was working well there.”