Neighbor Files Health Complaint Against Brick Memorial Marching Band

When the Brick Township Council announced in May that it was passing a resolution waiving the township’s noise ordinance on certain dates and at certain times for the marching bands at the township’s two high schools, everyone thought the issue was settled.

Not so fast.

And for the third straight year, the Brick Memorial marching band is the subject of a noise complaint -- this time to the Ocean County Board of Health.

Interim Superintendent Richard Caldes confirmed that he is scheduled to attend a meeting this week with the Board of Health regarding a complaint received from a neighbor of the high school about the band.

“It’s a noise complaint,” Caldes said regarding the nature of the complaint.

The complaint to the county Board of Health is just the latest in a long-running feud between the neighbor and the marching band that began four years ago and erupted into a significant conflict last summer.

Agreements were worked out between the district and the neighbor in the summer of 2013, but in August 2014 the situation erupted again, when Brick Township police were called and shut down a marching band practice because it violated the township’s noise ordinance.

That brought regional attention from other news outlets, including radio station NJ 101.5 and television coverage from New York. The Brick Township Council passed a resolution last September waiving the noise ordinance for the marching bands at both high schools on specific dates and at specific times, to allow the bands to practice.

In May, the council -- after meeting with school district officials and the neighbor -- passed a resolution waiving the ordinance, again on specific dates and at specific times for this school year, in an effort to address the situation right away. Business administrator Joanne Bergin said at the time that the neighbor had been consulted and “appreciated the dialogue.”

The waiver spells out the Mustangs’ practice times, with evening practices on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. They do not practice on Mondays on Fridays they have practice from 1:45 p.m. to 5 p.m. On Saturdays, the waiver varies depending on football games and band competitions -- including one scheduled for this Saturday.

Those restrictions apparently haven’t satisfied the neighbor, however, as word of the complaint filed with the Board of Health got out late last week.

Caldes, who was the Brick Memorial principal at the time the situation first arose, did not say when the meeting is scheduled to be held. He said one of the neighbor’s main complaints seems to be that the band practices in the evenings instead of right after school.

Parents of marching band members last fall said some of the band’s advisers are not able to assist right after school lets most days because they have other jobs. The other aspect of the complaint stems from the band practicing in the same spot at the school every night; Caldes said part of the agreement was that the band would practice in different spots at the school and not the same one each night. He did not know whether that was the issue with this most recent complaint.

Brick Memorial High School opened in January 1981 and has had a marching band since its doors opened. The homes on Alexander Avenue -- the street closest to the area of the school where the marching band practices -- were built a decade later.

Across town, where there have been no complaints, the ordinance is suspended from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. for the Marching Dragons to practice, and they have been heard practicing in the evenings at times.

“This is an elite band,” Council Vice President Heather deJong said in May. “This is what they do -- practice every day.”