Dear VSP Residents,
I would like to take a moment to share with you what the Village has done to address the history of offshore noise from boaters. Now that summer is here, these issues usually re-arise.
Over the past few years coastal residents (and many others) have often been plagued by amplified music from boaters who visit our waters--and by jet skis with their own noise and wake issues. To address this, the Village has taken a number of actions:
By legislation, we extended the Village’s noise laws to 1000’ offshore.
In that zone, we have prohibited:
Amplified noise
Boat wakes
Vessels (and jet skis) moving more than 5 mph.
These restrictions are backed by the laws of the Village for which we can issue tickets and which will be returnable in Village Court.
We do not wish to have to ticket offenders. As such, in order to alert boaters of these restrictions we have deployed 4 bowling pin style buoys and 2 rafts which are moored within our waters. (See pics).
The four buoys read “5 mph”.
The two rafts read: “NO amplified noise, NO speeds greater than 5 mph, NO wake, and NO rafting”. Rafting is the tying of boats together to create a shared social space. The rafts also reference the section of our code.
The locations are approved by the United States Coast Guard for safety (see map). Since we do not have authority over Manhasset Bay or Hempstead Harbor, those areas are not included.
Residents are encouraged to call our police desk at 516-883-3100 to report any prolonged noise events.
We will be working with officials from the Town of North Hempstead and Nassau County Marine Bureau to assist with enforcement when they can provide it.
I would like to thank Chief Tom Ruehle and Lt Casey Wall for their many efforts to help make this happen. Coordinating with the US Coast Guard, local marine authorities, and the buoy and raft manufacturers was a significant project.
That is all for now,
Mayor Peter A. Forman
See pics below
