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Bring on the noise; city�s ready Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Jacksonville reserve police officer Ryan Groom is prepared to handle the increased traffic that comes every year with the Britt Festivals, which open Friday. The city has been working with police, Britt staff, neighbors and music promoters to develop solutions to complaints about noise, parking and traffic. By Melissa Martin JACKSONVILLE � City police and sound police are gearing up for what may be the biggest Britt season in the festival�s 38-year history. For 45 nights this summer, about 1,000 cars carrying 2,000 people will cruise into this historic landmark town, more than doubling its population. Entertaining the crowds will be about 460 musicians, dancers and comedians who will descend on Jacksonville this summer, bringing with them the luxury buses they travel in and the semi-trucks that carry their instruments and equipment. "It looks like it�s going to be a record year for us," said Ron McUne, Britt Festivals director. But both city police and sound police are ready for the crowds. City police will write tickets for illegally parked concertgoers and direct post-concert traffic. And sound police will persuade musicians to keep sound levels at the legal limit. "They�ve improved things so much," said Clare Dobbyn, whose home is near the oldest outdoor concert bowl in the Pacific Northwest. In recent years, she said, "it hasn�t been noisy; we haven�t had idling buses or crews leaving at 2 or 3 in the morning. And nobody blocks our driveway." Dobbyn, who has lived in the same Jacksonville home for 58 years, said cars used to park in front of her home when the festival opened in 1962. But not any more. Beginning Friday, a new permit system designed to protect residents� parking spaces prohibits visitor parking in a 10-block zone June through September. There is no parking on South Third, Elm, Applegate, Oregon, Oak or Fir streets. Truck drivers also will be making changes, according to McUne. They can no longer sit idling at the bottom of Fir Street waiting for the concert to end so they can back up the road and load equipment. Now, truck drivers will park in a vacant lot on the edge of town until they get a phone call from Britt telling them the music has ended and the crowds have cleared, McUne said. Bus drivers will make changes, too, connecting to electrical boxes to run air conditioning units instead of idling their diesel engines for hours. And when the musical stars leave their luxury buses to take the Britt stage, they must answer to the sound police � Britt production manager Mike Sturgill. Musicians can�t play any louder than 92 decibels in an average hour. If they do, the city of Jacksonville can fine Britt $1,500 or more. "Sometimes, I come up to a musician at the end of his bad week and ask him to turn the sound down and it doesn�t work," Sturgill said. "If I tell them they will be fined, it�s less effective than if I say, �You could be jeopardizing the future of the festival if you don�t comply with the rules.� " The "radar" that Sturgill uses in his concert policing is the same type of sound level monitoring system used in the 18,000-seat Hollywood Bowl near Los Angeles. Noise is picked up by a tiny, $500 microphone at Britt�s house mix position. There�s a computer in an office below the Britt stage that records sound levels and sends results back to the sound board. A small, metal box lights up like a traffic signal, green, yellow or red, depending on the reading. "It won�t be easy to ignore," Sturgill said. "If the red light is on, I�ll know we are over the limit." Although Britt has been running its concerts at 90 decibels for several years, this is the first time it must submit hourly readings to City Hall the morning after the concert. Sound technicians, music promoters, neighbors and city and county staff met with a mediator for more than a year to resolve complaints about noise, parking and traffic during the summer concert series. They signed the new operating agreement last month. Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA