After months of discussion and public input, the Jefferson City Council finally has reached a resolution concerning updates to the city’s existing noise ordinance.

Among other things, the changes to the noise ordinance make it illegal for any sound amplifying device or other machine to be used to produce, reproduce or amplify sound and or noise that can be heard within 50 feet after 11 p.m. on Sundays through Thursdays and after 12:30 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

The City Council voted to approve the changes during its voting session on Monday, which was held in the Jefferson Civic Center on Kissam Street.

Complaints received from residents in the neighborhood surrounding Mike’s Down Under, a pub and grill in downtown Jefferson, were one of the reasons city council took a closer look at existing noise regulations.

"I was (one of) the driving forces behind the city (taking up this issue)," said Bobby Patterson, who lives near the pub and grill. "The changes aren’t perfect, but I can live with them. They’re better than nothing."

Exemptions to the new regulations include unamplified human voices, bells or chimes of churches or others places of worship and emergency signaling devices.

Special exemption waivers to the new noise guidelines are available for holidays that do not fall on a Friday or Saturday and must be approved by the city manager and police chief.

The changes to the ordinance will become effective July 1.

During the meeting ,the board also OK’d five property annexations and seven rezoning requests.

The group also approved a variance request for the Pendergrass Flea Market on U.S. 129. The variance lets the market install a new, multiple message electronic sign without removing or "making non-compliant signs compliant." Approval came with the conditions that the site is brought up to meet current fire codes and that the land containing new signs is subdivided from the existing parcel.