BENNINGTON, Vt. (AP) - A summer camp for youths being held at a former college campus in Vermont has been fined $1,600 over nighttime noise complaints from neighbors.
A judge on Friday denied the town of Bennington’s request to shut down the camp at the former Southern Vermont College campus.
Bennington had sued camp director Moshe Perlstein and Camp Southern Vermont, LLC, after receiving multiple noise complaints since July 5 from neighbors, the Bennington Banner reported. About 350 teens and staff members from the New York City area and New Jersey are staying in buildings on the 350-acre campus.
Bennington Superior Court Judge Cortland Corsones wrote that while the camp has made efforts to comply with the court’s previous orders, “the violations have been willful.” The town has made many attempts through its police officers to warn the camp against ongoing violations but those warnings “were not taken to heart,” Corsones wrote.
Camp operators “may purge themselves of contempt and payment of the fine” by complying fully with a previous order between now and the closing of the camps around Sept. 1, the judge wrote.
Perlstein said camp staff members have worked continually to reduce noise, by moving events to different areas, eliminating a public address system and taking down a large tent used for assemblies, the newspaper reported. Air conditioning is being installed in the athletic center, he said so that group events can be moved inside, he said.
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