As used herein:
(a) 
Person shall include the singular and plural and shall also mean and include any person, firm, corporation, association, club, partnership, society or any other form of association or organization, but shall not include an officer, agent or employee of the City authorized by the Director to engage in any activity herein described.
(b) 
Public address system shall mean any sound amplification equipment used to attract the attention of members of the public to, or enable an assembled audience to hear the person or group of persons using such equipment. Public address system shall not be deemed to include sound amplification equipment operated in an auditorium, place of worship, school, theater, or other enclosed premises where the sound so amplified cannot reasonably be expected by the operator thereof unreasonably to disturb, annoy, injure or endanger the comfort, repose, peace or safety of others outside of such premises.
(c) 
Sound Amplification Equipment shall mean any machine or device for the amplification of the human voice, music or any other sound. Sound amplification equipment shall not be construed as including standard televisions, radios, tape recorders, phonographs or other such reproduction equipment, when used and heard only by occupants of the premises or vehicle in which installed or in the immediate area of the person carrying the same, or warning devices on authorized emergency vehicles or horns or other warning devices on other vehicles used only for traffic safety purposes.
(d) 
Sound truck shall mean any vehicle having mounted thereon or attached thereto, any sound amplification equipment.
No person shall use, or cause to be used, a sound truck with its sound amplification equipment in operation for non-commercial purposes in the City before filing an annual written registration statement with the License Bureau. This registration statement shall be filed in duplicate and shall state the following.
(a) 
Name and home address of the applicant;
(b) 
Address of place of business of applicant;
(c) 
License number and description of the sound truck to be used by applicant;
(d) 
Name and address of person who owns the sound truck;
(e) 
Name and address of person having direct charge of sound truck;
(f) 
Names and addresses of all persons who will use or operate the sound truck;
(g) 
The purpose for which the sound truck will be used;
(h) 
A general statement as to the section or sections of the City in which the sound truck will be used;
(i) 
The proposed hours of operation of the sound truck;
(j) 
The number of days of proposed operation of the sound truck;
(k) 
A general description of the sound amplification equipment which is to be used;
(l) 
The maximum sound producing power in watts of the sound amplification equipment to be used in or on the sound truck; and,
(m) 
The approximate maximum distance for which sound will be thrown from the sound truck.
(a) 
Upon payment of the prescribed fees, the Division shall return to each applicant under this article one copy of such registration statement duly certified as a correct copy of such application.[1]
[1]
Cross reference: As to the fees for the registration, renewal or amendment, see Article 17 of this chapter.
(b) 
Such certified copy of the statement shall be in the possession of any person operating the sound truck at all times while the sound truck's sound amplification equipment is in operation.
(c) 
Such copy shall be prominently displayed and shown to any policeman or other official of the City upon request.
Non-commercial use of sound trucks in the City with sound amplification equipment in operation shall be subject to the following regulations:
(a) 
The only sounds permitted are music and human speech.
(b) 
Operations are permitted for four (4) hours each day, except on Sundays and legal holidays when no operations shall be authorized. The permitted four (4) hours of operation shall be between the hours of 11:30 A.M. and 1:30 P.M. and between the hours of 4:30 P.M. and 6:30 P.M.
(c) 
Sound shall not be issued within three hundred (300) feet of any hospital, school, place of worship, library or court session.
(d) 
No sound truck with its amplification device in operation shall be operated within the central business district as designated in the Plainfield Zoning Ordinance.
(e) 
The human speech or music amplified shall not be profane, lewd, indecent or slanderous.
(f) 
The sound shall be controlled so that it will:
(1) 
Not be at such volume as to be audible above normal speech level for a distance in excess of one hundred (100) feet from the sound truck;
(2) 
Be not unreasonably loud, raucous, jarring, or a nuisance to persons within the area of audibility;
(3) 
Be undistorted to the extent that it is reasonably able to be understood by the average listener.
(g) 
The area in which and the time during which the sound truck shall be operated shall be filed with the License Bureau at least twenty-four (24) hours prior to each operation of such truck.
No person shall use or cause to be used, a public address system for non-commercial purposes in the City unless:
(a) 
He shall have registered the same as a sound truck under this article; or,
(b) 
He shall have obtained a permit pursuant to this article except in the event of an emergency when it is impractical or impossible to secure a permit under this article and the use of such public address system is reasonably necessary to protect the health, safety or welfare of any person or property, and provided further that the operator of a stationary public address system for the exclusive reproduction of music for a religious or patriotic holiday shall not be obliged to secure a permit.
The License Bureau shall issue a permit for the use of a public address system to any applicant upon the showing of the following:
(a) 
The name and home address of the applicant who shall be in charge of such public address system.
(b) 
A general statement of the locality where the public address system is to be used.
(c) 
The day or days (not to exceed three (3) days under any one permit) when the public address system is to be used. The permit shall be carried or conspicuously displayed by the permit holder while the public address system is in operation, and shown to any policeman or other official of the City upon request.
[1]
Cross reference: As to the fee for public address system permit, see Article 17 of this chapter.
Non-commercial use of public address systems shall be subject to the following regulations:
(a) 
The only sounds to be amplified shall be human speech and music.
(b) 
Operations shall be limited to such volume, time or place as will not unreasonably disturb; annoy, injury or endanger the comfort, repose, health, peace or safety of others not participating in the assemblage to which such speech or music is directed. The audibility above normal speech level of such amplified sound for more than one hundred (100) feet beyond such assemblage of the disturbance of any religious assembly, library, court session, school session, or hospital, shall be prima facie evidence of a violation of the regulation.
(c) 
The sound so amplified shall not be unreasonably loud, raucous, jarring or a nuisance to a person within its area of audibility, and shall be undistorted to the extent that it is reasonably able to be understood by the average listener.
(d) 
The human speech or music so amplified shall not be profane, lewd, indecent or slanderous.
(e) 
In the event the public address system is being used to attract the attention of the public to an event or gathering, the operation of the public address system shall be subject to the sound truck regulations concerning time and area of operation set forth in this article.
Excepted from the permit requirements and regulations under this article shall be the use of public address systems by any municipal agency, including but not limited to the City and the Board of Education, provided such use is approved in writing by the City Administrator, the Superintendent of Schools, or other agency head or his designee.