Turlock parks are a haven for many families who host barbecues, birthday parties, and playdates at the many neighborhood park locations — with Crane Park on Canal Drive being one of the most popular. While families are out celebrating during the weekends, residents surrounding Crane Park are fed up with the excess noise and are demanding that policies be put into place.

Crane Park resident Dan Palmquist voiced his concerns during the Turlock Parks and Recreation Commission board meeting on Wednesday.  He said living across the street from Turlock's most-used recreation area is like coming home after a hard week of work to see and hear a party that lasts all weekend long, every weekend.

“The noise of the bounce houses are not only disrupting to the residents who live around the area, the gas generator that powers them is extremely loud,” said Palmquist. “These generators are running all day, even if there are no kids playing in it.”

Bounce houses are not the only problem, according to some Crane Park area residents. Palmquist stressed that the number of local vendors has increased and that amplified music is disrupting their peace.

“Last weekend we had several problems with separate groups bringing their big speakers cranking up the volume. The municipal code does not allow amplified music whatsoever.  I’ve had to call twice to file a complaint,” he said. “These issues need to be addressed and corrected.”

One proposal suggested by the residents in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting is to switch the gas generators to electric ones.  Neighbors believe that the electric generator will minimize the noise level and alleviate the problem.

 Several members of the Parks and Recreation Commission agreed with the residents’ input and encouraged them to continue to offer their suggestions to City of Turlock. 

 “We will have a plan in place by next spring,” said Recreation Senior Supervisor Erik Schulze.  “We are going to be working with a new (police) lieutenant and we are going to sit down in the next couple of months to come up with an outline.  We are going to get input from the neighbors and when we start renting the facilities out again, the policies will be strictly enforced.”

The City of Turlock is looking into setting up the bounce houses in certain locations throughout the park.

“This is also a concern from all the parks we have, not just Crane Park,” added Schulze. “It’s a matter of us setting up some sort of policy, working with the neighbors in the general area to make sure that when these issues do happen, there’s a response time and that on our end we do a better job designating where things could be set up.”

Once the plan is finalized, members of the Turlock Police Department will be asked to patrol the parks to make sure the policies are being put into effect.

“It’s going to be a park forever,” said Schulze. “But there are things that are going on there that shouldn’t be happening that we should be responding to make sure that the people who are living around there still have a quality of life during the weekends.”