A year after Gwynn’s Island residents first complained to the Mathews County Board of Supervisors about a neighbor playing loud music at all hours, the Mathews County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday night voted to adopt a noise ordinance for the county.
County Attorney Andrea Erard described the ordinance as a “stripped-down” version of the one she submitted last year, which was not approved by supervisors. She said that, as requested by board members, the new version of the ordinance addressed only the issue of loud music, requiring that no loud music be played between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m.
During the public hearing, Richard Langhorne of Cardinal, said he was in support of the ordinance but was concerned that it had been stripped down too much. He said the type of noise shouldn’t matter—that a chainsaw or loud voices at night still disturb people. In addition, he said that midnight is “very late,” so that “at no point in the day or evening can you walk around on your proper...