There’ll be some noisy discussion at next week’s meeting of the Langley City Council.

“We want to deal with this in an educational way rather than an enforcement way,” Mayor Paul Samuelson said Thursday. “We’ll talk to everyone and make sure the level of sound is right to begin with.”

Samuelson said he will report to the council on the city’s existing noise ordinance and address concerns brought up at the last council meeting, on the Internet and in letters to the editor in the local paper.

He also said the city plans to obtain a decibel meter.

“We’re in an uncomfortable situation here, since we don’t have a device to police it,” Samuelson said.

Next week’s meeting of the council will be on Tuesday, since Monday is a holiday. The council will meet at 6:30 p.m. at city hall on Second Street. There will be a council workshop session at 4 p.m.

At the last council meeting, concerns were voiced that amplified musical events, “industrial noise” and people shouting and playing loud recorded music after hours were disturbing to those who live and work in the downtown core.

It was also suggested that too much noise downtown interferes with other merchants, might cause a high turnover in the renting population and may discourage visitors from returning to town.

The city’s noise ordinance, a standard used by several communities, is short and sweet.

“Noise emanating from any use shall be muffled so as to not become objectionable due to intermittent beat, frequency or shrillness, and where use is within or adjoins a residential district,” it reads, adding:

“The sound measured at the lot line shall not exceed 50 decibels between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., and 70 decibels at other hours.”

Decibel-level comparisons vary depending on the source of the information, but 70 decibels when it comes to music might include the sound of one piano, or one person singing loudly.

Amplified rock music, by comparison, might be decibels if you’re within six feet of it, and 150 decibels at its peak. The sound of a military jet taking off from an aircraft carrier with afterburner at 50 feet would approach 130 decibels.

Meanwhile, 50 decibels might approximate conversation at home in a quiet suburb, or the sound of a large electrical transformer at 100 feet. Generally, sounds at 50 decibels are one-fourth as loud as those at 70 decibels.

Although the ordinance was adopted in 1986, the city has yet to acquire a meter to measure decibel levels. The response to complaints through the years has been to contact people and ask them to keep the noise down.

The mayor said he has heard from a number of people who enjoy the music downtown, “but none of them want it to get loud and crazy.”

“What we need to do is what we’re going to do; get everyone to work together with us to establish the right decibel level,” he added.

Mona Newbauer is one of the merchants along Second Street who offers outdoor music. She presents Saturday afternoon summer concerts from 3 to 4:30 p.m. between Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends at Island Angel Chocolates.

She said small-town merchants are constantly challenged to come up with ways to increase business, and that her concerts have been a success.

“The music has been fantastic for us,” Newbauer said Thursday. “It brings people together and puts smiles on their faces.”

She said she stood on Third Street at the edge of Brookhaven, a downtown residential area, during one of her recent concerts. She said she could only hear the music in one specific spot.

She said downtown concerts in Langley occur rarely after Labor Day. Her last one of the season is today.

“This is a good time for everyone to hash it out,” Newbauer said of the noise issue, “so when next summer comes, it’s not something we have to deal with.”

“Diversity — that’s what makes a community,” she added. “Open communication is a good thing, since we all have to live together.”