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Noise complaints flatten spirits at beach bar

By PAUL SWIDER
Published March 16, 2005

It's not an uncommon occurrence: a Florida beach bar full of partiers who make a lot of noise until someone calls the police.

The difference is that this bar is not full of 20-somethings with spiky blond hair and flat bellies; these people are gray and paunchy.

"The average age of my clientele is about 65," said Rosie DeYoung, the proprietor of the Bamboo Beer Garden, an institution on Madeira Beach for 60 years.

DeYoung said that in the five years she has run the bar, it has been one big senior party. She said she has created a haven for lonely seniors to come and laugh and sing karaoke. And then this year, things started to turn sour.

In February, Pinellas County sheriff's deputies, on contract with Madeira Beach for law enforcement, issued DeYoung a citation for violating the city's noise ordinance after someone living a block away signed a complaint that the bar was producing "loud and raucous" noise on a Saturday afternoon. DeYoung got another citation two weeks later. A third citation came the following Wednesday, again in the afternoon.

In the first instance, DeYoung just paid the $50 fine, but in subsequent incidents, she asked the deputies why they were doing this, what it was all about. She says deputies intimidated her and told her she should shut up or risk being arrested for inciting a riot among her clientele.

"I had three big deputies standing in front of me," said the diminutive 55-year-old. "I was scared."

Sheriff's Office representatives said there have been no formal complaints about intimidation by officers, so they are not aware of any problem.

DeYoung feels she's being set up. She said the Bamboo Beer Garden is a very casual, beer-drinking kind of bar for everyday folks. She said she believes the city's movers and shakers want to make Madeira Beach into an upscale community with expensive condos and that her bar is in their way.

"They want this to be Venice," DeYoung said, referring to the Sarasota County city.

DeYoung is quick to point a finger across Gulf Boulevard to TRS Realty, owned by Doreen Moore, a businesswoman and former city commissioner who recently lost a bid for mayor.

"I did not lodge a formal complaint," Moore said, acknowledging that she has been bothered by the bar's music, despite its being across a very busy street. She said she has let her unhappiness be known before and that the noise has gone away. "I don't want to do anything that's harmful to anyone's business."

DeYoung recalls a day before her first citation when sheriff's Deputy Ben West, the city's community policing officer, came to the bar to talk about noise. West then went across Gulf Boulevard to talk to a waiting Moore, before returning to talk to DeYoung, and then going back again. Shortly thereafter, DeYoung got her first noise citation. Moore had not filed that complaint, although her name appears on a December call that did not result in a citation.

West said he did try to mediate between Moore and DeYoung in February, but that it wasn't unusual; he does that in other instances in order to defuse disputes. He also noted that noise complaints in Madeira Beach are not new or rare.

West's records show that, since 2000, there have been 37 noise complaints, some unsigned, that he can connect to the Bamboo Beer Garden. None of those resulted in citations, he said, because the policy had always been to ask the bar to turn down the music.

West, who has worked in the city since November, said City Manager Jill Silverboard told him such warnings had gone on long enough and that it was time to start issuing citations. He said the Surf and Sand, a bar several blocks north of the Bamboo Beer Garden, has also gotten two noise citations in the past few months. Since the Surf and Sand got its citations, West said, it has had no more complaints against it. West said the same was true of the Bamboo Beer Garden.

The city now plans, however, to hold a workshop April 5 to discuss noise issues. Part of the need for that workshop was apparent at the last City Commission meeting when a number of the Bamboo Beer Garden's regulars showed up to support DeYoung and defend their hangout.

"The Bamboo Beer Garden has given us seniors something to enjoy," said James Clark, a Largo resident who spoke to the City Commission on March 9. "There are parties galore. Rosie even gives us birthday cakes on our birthdays."

Several other speakers also offered their heartfelt support for DeYoung and her bar. Many said they had been going there for decades and had met people from literally all over the world who come back year after year to enjoy the camaraderie. DeYoung handed the city commissioners a stack of signatures from supporters, customers and neighbors alike. More than 1,000 people signed their names to defend the bar.

The city knows it has a problem with its noise ordinance.

"It's pretty vague," said Charles Parker, the mayor and a 12-year veteran of the City Commission. "It gives a free license to law enforcement."

The ordinance states that noise must be considered "loud and raucous" at a distance of 50 feet from its source to be a violation. The judgment of "loud and raucous" is apparently left up to the complainant and law enforcement officers. The city's ordinance also references the Pinellas County ordinance, which uses an objective reading from a decibel meter, but also uses the "loud and raucous" wording to determine a violation, West said.

"We're trying to figure out what's going on," said Silverboard, who came on as city manager six months ago. She said the city has decibel meters and used to have an ordinance with a decibel standard, but repealed it at the urging of a prior owner of the Bamboo Beer Garden. She also said in her short time with the city, she has heard many complaints about noise at bars, including the Bamboo Beer Garden. She said some of those complaints have come from Moore.

"There's been some political influence in the past," said Parker, who defeated Moore earlier this month for the mayor's seat. "But the election may have eliminated that for the moment."

Parker said there have always been noise complaints on the beaches, but that he thinks they've diminished in recent years. He also feels the city has more important problems than noise complaints. Still, he is looking forward to the workshop to analyze the situation and solve it cleanly.

DeYoung said city officials have spoken to her and encouraged her to challenge her citations in court to help clear up a subjective law. She has hired an attorney. But all she really wants is to be left in peace with her creaky bar and aging guests.

"This used to be a bar for dirty old men," she said. "I cleaned it up and made it a place where husbands can bring their wives. I've seen five generations of a family at one table here, all having fun.

"They say they want to have "the right people' in Madeira Beach, not fishermen and people who like to drink beer. I just want to have a place where people can keep coming back and enjoying themselves."

[Last modified March 16, 2005, 01:32:17]