The Navratri festival takes place on Newark Avenue in Jersey City on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2013. Lauren Casselberry/For The Jersey Journal
EDISON -- The organizers of a Hindu holiday celebration on Oak Tree Road in Edison are promising they'll do a better job keeping things quiet this weekend after receiving about dozens of noise complaints from neighbors.
Bimal Joshi, one of the Navratri celebration organizers, said the organizers are getting smaller speakers and will be conscious of complaints in the neighborhood.
"We want to be well within the law," Joshi said. "We don't want to create a problem."
Joshi and other Navratri organizers met this week with township health, police, and fire officials after the first days of the nine-week holiday led to widespread complaints last weekend around the Oak Tree Road and Minebrook Road areas.
"The number of neighborhood noise complaints that Edison received last weekend was disturbing and disappointing," said township constituent relations administrator Anthony Russomanno in an email. "Edison acted swiftly to alleviate these issues during second portion of the Oak Tree Road Navratri celebration this Friday and Saturday."
Navratri is a nine-day Hindu holiday involving dancing, music and prayer to the goddess Durga. On Friday and Saturday this weekend, the celebration will take place in a bowling-alley parking lot on the corner of Minebrook Road and Oak Tree Road, from about 8:30 p.m. until 1 a.m., Joshi said. Tickets to the celebration are still available at the door or at local stores. They're for $5 on Friday and $6 for Saturday.
“We told festival organizers that the volume of music must be lowered significantly after 10 p.m. both nights and all music must cease at midnight in compliance with the municipal permit issued to their organization,” Russomanno said. “Noise compliance is more important this coming weekend because Navratri coincides with the Yom Kippur, a solemn Jewish observance.”
Said Joshi, the event organizer: "I want to invite everyone and see what we're doing. We want to be a part of the community."
Last weekend, the township received about 80 noise complaints, according to Sgt. Robert Dudash of the Edison Police Department. Dudash said police were on hand and, when the department received complaints, organizers turned down the volume several times.
Jay Elliot, the township health director, will be on hand to monitor decibel levels, which need to be below 55 in residential areas, township officials said. -nj.com
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