Paradise Municipal Code Ch. 5.20 Sound Trucks and Sound-Amplifying Equipment

For the purposes of this chapter, the following words and phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by this section:

A. "Sound-amplifying equipment" means any machine or device for the amplification of the human voice, music or other sound. "Sound-amplifying equipment" shall not be construed as including standard automobile radios when used and heard only by occupants of the vehicle in which installed or warning devices on authorized emergency vehicles or horns or other warning devices on other vehicles used only for traffic safety purposes.

B. "Sound truck" means any vehicle having mounted thereon, or attached thereto, any sound-amplifying equipment.

(Ord. 129 §5.20.010, 1985)

No person shall use, or cause to be used, a sound truck with its sound-amplifying equipment in operation in the town before filing an application, along with the fee set forth in the council resolution, with the police department. This shall be filed in duplicate and shall state the following:

A. Name and home address of the applicant;

B. Address of place of business of applicant;

C. License number, if any, of the sound truck to be used by the applicant;

D. Name and address of the person who owns the sound truck;

E. Name and address of the person having direct charge of the sound truck;

F. Names and addresses of all persons who will use or operate the sound truck;

G. The purpose for which the sound truck will be used;

H. A general statement as to the section or sections of the town in which the sound truck will be used;

I. The proposed hours of operation of the sound truck;

J. The number of days of proposed operation of the sound truck;

K. A general description of the sound-amplifying equipment which is to be used;

L. The maximum sound-producing power of the sound-amplifying equipment to be used in or on the sound truck. State the following:

1. The volume in decibels of the sound which will be produced,

2. The approximate maximum distance for which the sound will be thrown from the sound truck.

(Ord. 129 §5.20.020, 1985)

All persons using, or causing to be used, sound trucks shall amend any application filed pursuant to Section 5.20.020 within forty-eight hours after any change in the information therein furnished.

(Ord. 129 §5.20.030, 1985)

The police department shall return to each applicant under Section 5.20.020 one copy of the application approved by the chief of police or his designee. This copy of the application shall be in the possession of any person operating the sound truck at all times while the sound truck's sound-amplifying equipment is in operation and the copy shall be promptly displayed and shown to any law officer of the town or state upon request.

(Ord. 129 §5.20.040, 1985)

Use of sound trucks in the town with sound-amplifying equipment in operation shall be subject to the following regulations:

A. The only sounds permitted are music or human speech.

B. Operations are permitted for four hours each day, except on Sundays and legal holidays, when no operations are authorized. The permitted four hours of operation are between the hours of eleven-thirty a.m. and one-thirty p.m., and between the hours of four-thirty p.m. and six-thirty p.m.

C. Sound-amplifying equipment shall not be operated unless the sound truck upon which such equipment is mounted is operated at a speed of at least ten miles per hour except when the truck is stopped or impeded by traffic. Where stopped by traffic the sound-amplifying equipment shall not be operated for longer than one minute at each such stop.

D. Sound shall not be issued within one hundred yards of hospitals, schools, churches or courthouses.

E. The human speech and music amplified shall not be profane, lewd, indecent or slanderous.

F. The volume of sound shall be controlled so that it will not be audible for a distance in excess of one hundred feet from the sound truck and so that the volume is not unreasonably loud, raucous, jarring, disturbing or a nuisance to persons within the area of audibility.

G. No sound-amplifying equipment shall be operated with an excess of fifteen watts of power in the last stage of amplification.

(Ord. 129 §5.20.050, 1985)