Mass Gathering Ordinance gathers mass hysteria

LEBANON - When a public hearing on Oct. 7 was held for residents to come out and discuss updating the town’s Mass Gathering ordinance, not one soul, including Selectman and Assistant Chief Jason Cole, turned out to voice any concerns with the changes.

But about a week before voting day, that all changed as Just Chevy Trucks owner Kurt Zeller and Cole together launched an anti-ordinance crusade that appears to be a tempest in a teapot but has roiled the small hamlet nonetheless.

Zeller runs 4X4 Proving Ground, a mud track behind his business in East Lebanon where “Mudders” as they are called, can go to test their truck’s ability to navigate their way through what amounts to a mud drag strip.

He has a few events each year where several hundred attend to watch and participate in the trials.

Zeller, who wonders aloud if the current board is trying to run him out of town, has two chief concerns over the updated ordinance.

One is that for every 100 attendees the event coordinator must hire one security guard and that if there is liquor present, it would be one for every 50. He says folks who come to his events will often quietly sip a beer. He knows because he sees empty cans when he cleans up after an event, he told The Lebanon Voice on Thursday.

But Selectman Ben Thompson said on Friday that the added security personnel would not apply to incidental alcohol consumption such as was referenced by Zeller.

Thompson said the law enforcement aspect of the old ordinance lacked specific requirements and that State Police had encouraged selectmen to put more teeth in the ordinance regarding enforcement for the sake of safety.

Adding to Zeller’s anxiety was the understanding he’d gotten that police officers or retired police officers would be required for enforcement. He said those salaries would be out of his range.

However, a close inspection of the law enforcement aspect referred to in the new ordinance - RSA Title 32, Chapter 93, section 9405 - is far less restrictive than what Zeller had envisioned. It simply states that the owner of a security firm in charge of an event under the new Mass Gathering ordinance must have been certified to run a security firm. Those requirements include proving things like they are not mentally ill, that they are not felons along with a few other rudimentary questions.

“Basically, it’s pretty much like the questions you get for your hunting license,” Thompson said.

The only other problem Zeller had with the new ordinance is the three gallons of water required for each attendee coming to an event, however, the exact same requirement is in the former ordinance from 1981.

Zeller said he was unaware the three-gallon requirement has always been there and that security personnel didn’t have to be police officers when he wrote the letter.

Cole, meanwhile, who placed the letter on the Lebanon Community News page that he administers, signed a copy of the ordinance at the Sept. 16 Board of Selectmen meeting and attended a Sept. 9 selectmen’s meeting where Skydive New England owner Fred Coutreau and others helped hammer out ordinance details.

In the minutes of Sept. 9 and 16 no mention is made of Cole objecting to the new ordinance.

However after several comments against the new ordinance below Zeller’s letter on the Lebanon Community News Page of October 28, he comments (posting as the Lebanon Community News): “Unfortunately they voted on this when they knew I had to work. I do not approve of these conditions.”

After having his message posted on Lebanon Community News, Zeller followed with a public mailing of the same message to every address in town on Saturday.

An email to Cole was not immediately returned.

An image form Lebanon Community News