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Noise complaints decrease
(by Kathryn A. Burger - September 02, 2008)
When the Dunkin Donuts store opened on Kinderkamack Road, it was the first tenant in the building. As construction progressed, with more retail space added on the first floor and apartments on the second, Dunkin Donuts, still the building’s lone tenant, decided to expand its space and its hours of operation. By the time tenants moved in, the business had been in operation for several months, 24 hours a day.
Over the past several months, most notably since the spring, tenants have repeatedly complained to police of large groups of young people making “excessive noise” gathering in the back parking lot most often between 10 p.m. and about 2 a.m.
After the first complaints came in, the store posted “No Loitering” signs in the immediate vicinity of the store as well as in a stairwell that leads to the apartments upstairs. Police told the store manager that he and his employees had to make an attempt to keep customers moving and not allow them to gather in the rear of the store and disturb nearby residents.
As reported in the July 16 edition of Community Life, police were to meet with the owner and the manager to try to find solutions to this ongoing problem. That meeting took place last month. Park Ridge Police Lt. Joseph Rampolla advises that he met with store personnel and they discussed how they could work together to meet everyone’s needs. “We brainstormed ideas and one has already been implemented.”
The storeowner has voluntarily installed a new back door with new locks. The store can be accessed from the front of the building, facing Kinderkamack Road, and from the back, where there is additional parking and parking for tenants in the eight apartments on the second floor of the building. Staff in the store cannot see the back parking lot and so don’t know when groups have congregated.
The back door is now locked at about 10 p.m. until 4:30 a.m. Rampolla said juveniles congregate most often between 10:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. and it is hoped that barring access to the store from the back of the building will help to deter them from gathering there. Apartment tenants have keys to the new locks.
Rampolla said that as a result of the meeting, “We have also stepped up patrols.”
Police respond to every complaint regarding noise or loitering near the store and disperse those who are loitering, Rampolla said. No written warnings or summonses for loitering or disturbing the peace have been issued to date. Rampolla explained that right now the department is conducting an “education campaign.” He said the store draws young adults from a large area and there are different youths there all the time. Some of them, he said, “really have no idea that they can’t hang out in the parking lots,” which accounts for the ongoing though less frequent complaints from tenants. He said the campaign is beginning to work. He spoke to a few youths who had congregated at a borough park. They said they were there because they weren’t allowed to hang out at the Dunkin Donuts anymore. “It is working to a certain extent.”
Balancing the needs of the tenants, the customers and the business owner is the goal of the department’s efforts, Rampolla said. “We take every complaint seriously and will continue to work with store management in an effort to meet everyone’s needs.”
Kathryn A. Burger's e-mail address is burger@northjersey.com.
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