Ordinance would restore peace in the valley

I live in an agricultural district in the peaceful Selle Valley. Peaceful, that is, until a neighbor moved in and built a dirt bike track on his 10-acre parcel. For nearly a year, I have been working with the county commissioner for my district to put a stop to this very disruptive activity.

We think we are protected from this type of nuisance until it actually happens. But the wording in our nuisance and disturbing the peace laws make it impossible to pursue a charge against the property owner.

After months of research, I discovered a very specifically worded noise ordinance that has been adopted by numerous counties around the country, in virtually every state, targeting the dirt bike track problem. I presented several of these to the commissioners.

This ordinance prevents these inconsiderate riders from plopping their tracks next to people’s homes by prohibiting repetitive internal combustion engine noise at all hours. This is the inescapable engine noise that occurs over and over again as these bikes fly over the jumps for hours on end. This specific noise ordinance has all the exceptions of law enforcement, emergency and utility vehicles, as well as farm and agricultural equipment including chain saws.

There is nothing about a dirt bike track that promotes an agricultural pursuit. I’m certain that most people would not like a dirt bike track built next to their home. If those of us surrounding this track had bought our land and built our homes around an existing track, we would not have much room to complain. If the noise and dust from these bikes were confined to the owner’s own property, it would be a different matter.

These inconsiderate property owners usually claim personal property rights, but are wrong to assume that they own the air over and around their neighbors as well.

They don’t, and they should not have the right to broadcast their noise and dust onto other people’s property. The 18th century philosopher John Stuart Mill, one of the greatest defenders of the freedoms of individuals, recognized that people ought to be free to do as they please, “so long as they cause no harm to others.”

When this neighbor started exercising his right to build a dirt bike track on his property, he took away all of our personal property rights — the right for comfortable enjoyment of our properties; the right to open our windows in the summer to release heat from our homes; the right to talk on the phone or to each other; the right for our young children to take naps in their own beds. This should not be allowed to happen to anyone. There are certain things that a considerate property owner would not do. Building a dirt bike track is one of them. We all have personal property rights, and we are fighting to keep one person from taking ours from us. These tracks in a neighborhood completely destroy the peace of an area. Not only are they dirty, disruptive and annoying, they destroy property values in the entire area.

If you don’t want someone to plop a dirt bike track next to your home, please contact your commissioner and tell them. Without a specific noise ordinance to stop it, it can happen to you just as it has happened to us.

ROB and KAREN HEYNEN

Selle