MEMPHIS, Tenn — Neighbors are describing church bells in the Vollintine-Evergreen area as frustrating and annoying. The bells have been ringing for nearly two years now with complaints of the church adding in a PA system to make the bells even louder.
Paul Lawrence brought the issue up at ABC24’s Let’s Talk in August.
”Those church bells, 13 hours a day of them, every half hour and we can’t get any relief,” Lawrence said back in August.
After meetings with the community association, reaching out to the priest, the diocese and city leaders, there still hasn’t been a compromise.
“It’s affected everybody around here,” Lawrence said. “People move out...because they can’t take the noise.”
Father Yoelvis Gonzalez of the church said he wouldn’t meet with ABC24 in person and that he is complying with the city. The city doesn’t list a decibel level requirement for church bells, allowing any consequences over the volume to be up to the interpretation of the person called at the time of the incident.
“We’ve tried to meet with the neighbors,” Gonzalez said. “They have not tried to have an actual meeting with us.”
However, Mary Oglesby said that opportunity was closed off quickly.
“I was immediately told that they were going to be using them however they wanted and that I should consider the church bells an invitation to go to church, and then he immediately blocked all communication with me,” Oglesby said.
Neighbors said the bells also interrupt their daily routine.
“There’s people that work from home, there’s people with children, there’s people that work at night, sleep during the day, and it’s almost impossible with this noise from this church,” neighbor Andi Bailey said.
Hundreds of people have signed a petition to have the volume lowered, but the church isn’t on board. The next step is neighbors attempting to take the church to environmental court.