SPANISH FORT — The city does not have a noise ordinance but it is expected to come eventually.

Monday night the Spanish Fort City Council tabled the issue so City Attorney David Conner could simplify the measure.

Mayor Joe Bonner said he felt the ordinance was too confusing.

“I read it and was confused — and I helped draft it,” he said. “We looked at similar ordinances from surrounding cities and most of them were so complex.

“We want to make it black and white so you do not have to be an attorney to figure it out,” he added. “It should be simple enough that if we get a complaint an officer should be able to read it, hand it to the person and they should be able to understand.”

During a work session prior to Monday night’s council meeting city leaders discussed several proposed changes in the ordinance, which included allowing fireworks on certain holidays including Independence Day and New Year’s Day.

The council is also looking at restricting the times a P.A. system can be used at athletic fields.

Bonner said the city has received few noise complaints.

“I have had a handful in two and half years — most of them dealing with construction noise, fireworks and someone using a mower at 6 in the morning,” he said.

The measure would provide an avenue for the city to deal with complaints that arise.

Bonner said he knows those complaints will come because “some people are going to push you as far as they can, and so we cannot cure it unless we have a law.”

One common complaint seems to come from residents on Fiesta and Ponce De Leon drives who border the Spanish Fort ball fields adjacent to Spanish Fort Elementary School.

Monday, one resident, Jim Nethrey, used the public participation portion of the council meeting to complain about the noise created during the end-of-the-season party held at the fields by the Spanish Fort Sports Association.

Nethrey, a long-time critic of the Association, said that he heard loud music, loud public address speeches and fireworks during the night on June 9.

He requested that council members ban amplifiers, P.A. systems and fireworks from the ballparks.

Nethrey was followed at the microphone by Fiesta Drive resident Brian Kick, who echoed his neighbor’s comments and continued with complaints about lighting, drainage, the lack of a privacy fence and a promised 50-foot buffer zone between the fields and his property.

The comments reflected a tense history between the city, the Baldwin County School Board and the Spanish Fort Sports Association. The disagreement stems back about two years when the school board allowed the Sports Association to use the property to construct athletic fields.

The permission has been viewed as a means to circumvent the city’s construction regulations, which require plans and approval by the Planning Commission and City Council.

Bonner expressed support for homeowners in the neighborhood.

“You have a property owner that told a lessee that they did not have to abide by any rule the city of Spanish Fort has got; I find that disturbing,” he said.

Bonner attributed the issue to “a couple of bullies that wrecked a neighborhood all in the name of doing it for the kids.”

Bonner promised to revisit the issue with the School Board and Spanish Fort Sports Association.

“It is time for somebody to do what is right,” he said.