La Conner Washington has a noise problem

La Connor Washington is one of those great little artsy towns that you stumble across and then later ask yourself why didn't I know about this place before?  

The area was first settled back in 1867 but didn't receive the name La Conner until 1870. In the 1940's, the small town started to attract artists and began to establish a name for itself as an artistic community in the state of Washington. 

La Conner is probably most well-known for is the Tulip Festival that attracts thousands of visitors every year. They also have another series of summer events, the weekly musical performances during the summer season. Only one problem. Apparently, it's too noisy. 

According to Seattletimes.com,
‘La Conner Live, a nonprofit organization, has for years brought music to the town’s Gilkey Square, including jazz, blues and rock. This summer, the group was looking to add both tribal dance and Latino dance music to the roster, said Hulst, 61.
That was the plan, at least until Hulst received an addendum to her contract with the town that would restrict the music to 55 decibels. 

To put this all into context, 55 decibels (or DB) is not particularly loud at all. Approximately the volume of a normal conversation, your average lawn mower is louder than 55 DB, and let's not even talk about cars with worn out mufflers. 

The noise ordinance was passed in 2022. Town Ordinance No. 1215, the purpose of which was originally stated as to limit the amount of noise made during construction, Maintenance and repair in residential areas. But up until about a year ago there had been no complaints about the noise levels during live music performances. 

Hey! Get off my lawn!

La Conner Mayor Marna Hanneman was quoted as saying, 
“Up until last year there were no complaints, we didn’t have any problems, But the music got really loud and we had a lot of complaints, not only from the merchants but residents farther down in a residential area.” 

The mayor of La Conner is vowing to find some sort of compromise so that La Conner Live Can continue during the summer season.