Noise from Elks club causing stir

SAUGUS – The Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks is claiming it’s a good neighbor, but Lindsay Terrace residents are not feeling the benevolence. “Over the past four or five years things have become markedly different,” said Patrice Provitola, who along with her husband, Michael, lives next door to the Main Street Lodge.Elks leaders were at a recent selectmen’s meeting seeking to alter its operational, alcohol and entertainment licenses to include the “grove area,” an outside picnic area. Lindsay Terrace residents opposed the request.Provitola said there have always been outdoor events at the lodge, but over the last few years the lateness of the events and the loudness of the music have both increased.”The volume is to the point where we really can’t enjoy our own outdoor spaces and even inside, with the doors and windows closed, we can’t hear our own TV,” she said.Michael Provitola is a member of the organization and has asked the lodge to do a better job at controlling the music but nothing has changed, Patrice Provitola said.She asked the board, at the very least, to consider restricting the volume level of the music.”We are literally 35-50 feet from the grove,” said Michael Provitola. “Sometimes it’s just background music and that’s no problem, but sometimes you can’t have a conversation.”John Doucette, 11 Lindsay Terrace, said he, too, has had his television drowned out by the music.BPOE Treasurer Michael Zellen, who is in charge of booking the area, noted that for years the Elks have allowed people to come in and use the grove or has donated it to the Senior Center and school Booster Clubs. He said if the community wanted the lodge to continue its charitable ways, it would need a little help.”Rental property is our only revenue source,” he said.Zellen also said he didn’t want to say that Provitola had some of her information wrong but she did. He said he’s never received on call or complaint from anyone in the neighborhood and if the board checked police reports they would see there have only been three recent incidents and only one was the result of loud music.”There was a member who abused the privilege and did not listen to the contract,” Zellen said.He said the employee was reprimanded and told if it happened again he would be let go.He also said the lodge only uses the outside area about 16 times per year, there is not always music and most events end by 5 p.m. or 5:30 p.m.”We are a benevolent and protective order,” he said. “Please give us some consideration, if you take away our revenue stream – that’s all we have.”Town Meeting member Edward Carlson was between a rock and hard place on the issue. As a meeting member he urged his constituents to call him if they had a problem, but he said he is also lodge member.”That revenue stream comes into the lodge and immediately leaves and goes into the host communities,” he said. “I hope some compromise can be reached.”Board members listened to concerns but took no action because according to clerk Wendy Reed she had no affidavit showing neighbors had been properly notified of the hearing.Chairman Michael Serino said the hearing would be continued to a future meeting when the neighbors were properly notified.