NEW HAMPSHIRE:
This article implies it’s this is a checkpoint:
Motorcycle noise case gets trial date
Police to hold compliance checkpoint this Sunday
By Shir Haberman
news@seacoastonline.com
July 27, 2011 2:00 AM
NORTH HAMPTON — A lawsuit filed against the town by Seacoast Motorcycles to prevent the enforcement of a motorcycle noise ordinance passed by voters at the 2010 Town Meeting will be heard next year in Superior Court, according to Town Administrator Steve Fournier.
A bench hearing on the case is scheduled for July 10-11, 2012, he said.
In the meantime, signs asking motorcyclists to drive safely and quietly were ordered by the town. Fournier said Public Works Director John Hubbard was putting up the signs, but because they are town signs, they are not allowed on state roads in town, Fournier said.
Police Chief Brian Page, along with other Seacoast and state police, are continuing to hold periodic motorcycle checkpoints aimed primarily at ticketing riders whose vehicles exceed the state decibel levels. The next checkpoint will be Sunday, July 31, at Seacoast Harley-Davidson. Two recent checkpoints were held June 26, in cooperation with the Portsmouth and Rye police departments and state police. The locations for the checkpoints were Ocean Boulevard at the Rye/North Hampton town line and on Middle Street in Portsmouth.
The checkpoints will continue through the fall as part of a regional effort to reduce noise from vehicle exhaust, radios, and to locate vehicles not adhering to the inspection, equipment and the other statutes approved by the Legislature, according to Page, Rye Police Chief Kevin Walsh, Portsmouth Police Chief David Ferland and Sgt. Steve Kace of State Police Troop G.
A total of 70 vehicles were stopped at the previous checkpoints and tickets and/or warnings were issued for defective equipment, driving an uninspected vehicle, operating an unregistered vehicle and unsafe handlebar height. One warning and one summons were issued for vehicles that exceeded allowable noise levels, the chiefs reported.
The petition warrant article at the center of the lawsuit passed at last year's Town Meeting by an almost 2-1 margin, making it illegal to operate or park a motorcycle that did not have an EPA sticker on its exhaust system in town. The sticker certified at the time of production that the system emitted no more than 80 decibels under normal operation. After reviewing the ordinance with Page, and seeking legal opinions from several sources, the North Hampton Select Board chose not to enforce it. Legal opinions noted a town cannot usurp a state law allowing motorcycles to emit 106 decibels. The EPA's regional attorney confirmed the federal law did not authorize communities to make regulations that undermined state law.
In its suit, Seacoast Motorcycles asked the courts for a permanent injunction on enforcement of the new ordinance claiming it hurt the dealership's business. A temporary injunction was granted last year without objection from the town.
The group New Hampshire Citizens Against Loud Motorcycles formed late last year in New Castle, intervened in the case and filed a brief in Rockingham Superior Court in support of the new ordinance. N.H. CALM subsequently motioned to move the case to federal court as it involved a federal noise standard. A federal court justice rejected the attempt, citing an objection to the transfer by the town. The group withdrew as an intervener in the case earlier this year.
