At its Aug. 17 meeting, the Saratoga town council heard several opinions from the public on a proposed organized event application before tabling it. According to the current draft’s definition, anyone wishing to hold a “group activity including, but not limited to, a performance, festival, meeting, assembly, contest, exhibit, ceremony, parade, athletic competition, reading, or picnic involving more than 30 people or a group activity involving less than 30 people for which specific space is requested to be reserved” must fill out this application. 
In the town of Saratoga’s most recent draft of the organized event application, there is a condition confining anyone looking to hold such an event to certain decibel levels.
Decibels measure how loud a sound is and range from 0dB to 194dB. An increase of 3dB is barely perceptible, while an increase of 10dB is about twice as loud.
The draft calls for daytime hours to start at 7 a.m. and end at 10 p.m. All nighttime levels in the application currently call for sound to drop five decibels from daytime levels.
The town suggests a daytime limit of 60dB in residential areas. A normal conversation is held at between 60 and 70dB. Business areas could be restricted to daytime sound levels of 70dB, and the draft suggests daytime levels of 80dB in industrial areas. A telephone dial tone is about 80dB.
Below are some more sounds and their approximate decibel level for comparison.
Sound        Decibel level
Weakest sound heard    0dB
Whisper    30dB
Normal conversation (3’-5’)    60-70dB
Telephone dial tone    80dB
City traffic (inside car)    85dB
Train whistle at 500’, Truck traffic                90dB
Subway train at 200’    95dB
(Sustained exposure may result in hearing loss)
90-95dB
Snowmobile, Motorcycle    100dB
Power mower at 3’       107dB
Power saw at 3’    110dB
Sandblasting, Loud rock concert        115dB
Pneumatic riveter at 4’    125dB
(Pain begins)    125dB
Jet engine at 100’, Gun blast    140dB
(Short term exposure can cause permanent damage)