The Sound of Music in Cave Creek

Sometimes music is beautiful; sometimes it is just sound, or even noise. Sometimes music/sound/noise is impacting on you in your home when you are trying to sleep, or even just trying to enjoy the quiet of Cave Creek in your yard.

Cave Creek’s town manager hosted a series of  meetings to address this sound issue. The town staff invited several members of the community to actively discuss the problems of the past and what can be done via ordinance revision to assure reasonable peace and quiet in the neighborhoods, yet allow for Cave Creek’s traditional music and entertainment. Meetings were also held with members of the business community for the same purpose. It is not an easy or quick fix trying to reasonably respect rights of all parties.

The town marshal, Adam Stein, who has been very pro‑active and diligent in his late‑night patrols of the town core taking sound readings, reported that the number of complaints has dropped dramatically. Now, this could well be due to the impact of his patrols and “educating”  the business owners, or it could be that some of our impacted citizens are just tired of complaining due to modest if any response via the sheriff’s department.

If you are being bothered or troubled by music/sound/noise, please call the sheriff’s office at (602) 876‑1000 (non‑emergency number) and report your complaint so your voice can be heard. Our town marshal, Adam Stein, has established a process whereby the sheriff’s office will notify our marshal, and he will take the necessary action to address and correct the problem. This will also make sure our marshal will know what the current status of complaints is in your neighborhood.

A fully enforceable sound/nuisance ordinance has now been approved so please do not say, “Why bother?” Your call can make a big difference.

As it stands now, there is a perception by the town council that there is no longer a problem–due to the lack of complaints.

We all know, some sounds are sometimes not “music to your ears.” When they are not, make the call.

Bob Moore
Cave Creek