William J. Kemble reports in the Daily Freeman that two weeks ago many Saugerties residents came out to voice support for a noise ordinance that would give local police broad latitude to decide whether noise is excessive. Under the proposed law, police would decide whether "noise" was "unusually loud ... [or] annoys, disturbs, injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health, peace or safety of a reasonable person of normal sensibilities, or which causes injury to animal life or damage to property or business.” But May 1 at a second public hearing, residents came out to defend all sorts of noises. Some defended loud engines and equipment. Some defended gun shots. Some defended their First Amendment rights. "I have a loudspeaker and I have been known to ... organize rallies at times,” Gaetana Ciarlante said. “I don’t think I should have to be prohibited ... from using that because I think that infringes on the right to assemble.” And some defended the sound of lawnmowers. "In my last dying breath, I’d love to organize on a Sunday a lawn mower invasion or a tractor invasion coming through town on the busiest weekend and bring 5,000 lawn mowers,” town resident Bob Lippman said. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.