Councilors revisit club noise problem

BANGOR – With summer and open-window season just about here, Court Street resident Gerald Oleson is dreading another season of sleepless nights.

Oleson, who lives across the Kenduskeag Stream from Club Gemini on Harlow Street, is among the downtown residents who say they have lost sleep because of the loud, bass-heavy music coming from the nightspot which opened in March of last year.

Besides the bass, residents have complained about noise from rowdy patrons arriving and leaving and who come outside to smoke.

“Really, I don’t have a lot of new [issues] to report tonight, except that [noise] is an ongoing problem. There are people losing sleep and it’s an ongoing aggravation,” Oleson said Tuesday night during a meeting of the City Council’s government operations committee.

Oleson was invited to the meeting by Councilor Annie Allen, committee chairman, and Councilor Gerry Palmer.

When city councilors reissued the club’s special amusement permit and liquor license in February, they added the condition that the Branns take steps to beef up soundproofing for Club Gemini’s exterior wall facing the Kenduskeag Stream by June 1. That’s the side of the building where the main entrance and emergency exits are located.

A council committee will revisit the matter within 60 days of the wall’s completion to see if it cuts down on the noise, in particular the booming bass.

In an update on what they are doing to address the problems, club owners Matthew and Patrick Brann said they are nearing completion on a project aimed at soundproofing the club’s back wall and expect it to be done by June 1. The project, they said, brings the amount they have spent on noise mitigation efforts to about $20,000.

While that should take care of the bass, Patrick Brann said, that fix likely will do little to control the shouting and brawling that takes place outside the club.

Part of the problem, he said, is that club patrons use city-owned parking lots over which he and his twin brother have no control. They lack the authority to tell someone who is causing a ruckus to leave.

As it stands, Deputy Police Chief Peter Arno said Bangor police who patrol the area or who are called there must issue a warning before they can charge someone with disorderly conduct or other offenses.

During Tuesday’s meeting, city officials suggested a possible solution.

City Solicitor Norman Heitmann said that city staff will explore leasing parking spaces to the Branns. Should that prove feasible, a lease would allow the club’s staff to issue warnings, after which patrons who continue to raise a ruckus could be charged by police.

The proposed measure will be discussed during a meeting in mid-June, at which time city officials also will determine if the soundproofing has had the intended effect.