[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Supervisors of the Township of Forks 3-18-2021 by Ord. No. 371. Amendments noted where applicable.]
For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms, phrases, words, and their derivations shall have the meanings given herein. When not inconsistent with the context, words used in the present tense include the future, words in the plural number include the singular number, and words in the singular number include the plural number, and the word "shall" is always mandatory and not merely directory.
OWNER
A person owning, leasing, occupying, or having charge of any premises within the Township.
PERSON
Any natural person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, company, or organization of any kind.
REAL PROPERTY BOUNDARY
A. 
The imaginary line, including its vertical extension, that separates one parcel of real property from another.
B. 
The vertical and horizontal boundaries of a dwelling unit or commercial unit of a mixed residential business use building.
TOWNSHIP
The Township of Forks, Northampton County, Pennsylvania.
A. 
It shall be unlawful for any person to make, continue, or cause to be made or continued and/or incessantly for a period of 10 minutes or make such noise intermittently for more than 30 minutes, any loud, unnecessary or unusual noise or any noise which either annoys, disturbs, injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health, peace or safety of others, across a residential property line of over 50 feet; provided that noises created in the normal and reasonable course of a legitimate business activity shall not be deemed illegal.
B. 
The following acts, among others, are declared to be loud, disturbing, and unnecessary noises in violation of this chapter, but said enumeration shall not be deemed to be exclusive, namely:
(1) 
Horns, signaling devices, etc.: sounding any horn or signaling device on any automobile, motorcycle, streetcar, or other vehicle on any street or public place of the Township except as a danger warning; creating, by means of any such signaling device, any unreasonably loud or harsh sound; or the sounding of any such device for any unnecessary or unreasonable period of time.
(2) 
Radios, tape players, television sets, musical instruments, electronic amplification equipment and similar devices: operating, playing, or permitting the operation or playing of any radio, television, phonograph, drum, musical instrument, sound amplifier, automobile stereo or high-fidelity equipment or similar device which produces or amplifies sound at any time of the day in such manner from any source as to create a noise disturbance.
(3) 
Loudspeakers, amplifiers for advertising: using, operating, or permitting the playing, use or operation of any radio receiving set, musical instrument, phonograph, loudspeaker, sound amplifier or other machine or device for the producing or reproducing of sound which is cast upon the public streets for the purpose of commercial advertising or attracting the attention of the public to any building or structure except in the course of legitimate business activity or auction sales.
(4) 
Yelling, shouting, etc.: yelling, shouting, hooting, whistling, or singing on the public streets so as to annoy or disturb the quiet, comfort, or repose of persons in any dwelling, hotel, or other type of residence, or of any persons.
(5) 
Exhausts: the discharge into the open air of the exhaust of any stationary internal combustion engine, or motor vehicle except through a muffler or other device which will effectively prevent loud or explosive noises therefrom.
(6) 
Vehicle repairs and testing: repairing, rebuilding, testing, or driving any motor vehicle, motorcycle, ATV, snowmobile, or other motor vehicles in such a manner as to cause a noise disturbance.
(7) 
Any vehicle which propelled or drawn on land, such as, but not limited to, passenger cars, trucks, truck-trailers, campers, go-carts, snowmobiles, amphibious crafts on land, dune buggies, racing vehicles, motorcycles, ATV or radio-controlled vehicles, radio-control (powered model) vehicle: any self-propelled or airborne, waterborne or land plane, vessel, or vehicle, which is not designed to carry persons, including but not limited to any model airplanes, boat, car, or rocket.
(8) 
Disorderly houses: No person shall visit, occupy, or frequent any house or building of any sort or description in the Township, and behave therein in a loud, tumultuous, or disorderly manner to the disturbance of the peaceable residents nearby.
C. 
This chapter shall not be deemed to prohibit or otherwise declare unlawful any agricultural operations protected from nuisance suits by Act No. 1982-133, 3 P.S. § 951 et seq.
Any person, firm or corporation who shall violate any provision of this chapter, upon conviction thereof in an action brought before a Magisterial District Judge in the manner proved for the enforcement of summary offenses under the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure, shall be sentenced to pay a fine of not more than $1,000 plus costs, and, in default of payment of said fine and costs, to a term of imprisonment not to exceed 90 days. Each day that a violation of this chapter continues or each section of this chapter which shall be found to have been violated shall constitute a separate offense.