By Rebecca Goldfine,Staff Writer

BETHEL – Dog owners here could face fines for not cleaning up after their pets if townspeople approve an ordinance change at the annual town meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Crescent Park School.

Fines for breaking the pooper-scooper ordinance would be set by the court, Town Manager Scott Cole said Monday.

The ordinance requires dog owners to pick up after their pets on both public property and private land belonging to others. Selectmen created the law after receiving letters complaining about dog messes in town, Cole said.

Also on the warrant is a proposal allowing bars to crank up the music.

The legal limit for bars is 45 decibels now, but after officials tested several establishments after a complaint about the Funky Red Barn, they found that most local venues were pumping out noise in the low to mid-50 decibel range, Cole said.

The proposed article increases the legal limit to 60 decibels, but after 11 p.m., it drops back to 55 decibels until 7 a.m.

“Rather than encourage louder noise, I think it’s a fair statement that it would put in compliance what is already happening,” Cole said.

Another warrant article requires anyone building a structure worth more than $25,000 to deal with the waste generated from the construction site. Builders must put a trash container on site, use one someplace else or even burn the debris. The transfer station has been accepting one truck-load of debris per day without fees from construction sites until now.

Another article, supported by Cole, asks townspeople to increase the fleet of police cruisers from two to four to put less stress on the cars. He said this wouldn’t save money, and in fact might cost more, but it would increase the ability for the police to respond reliably.

The article’s “an attempt to gauge public opinion,” Cole said, because the budget this year does not ask voters to approve the purchase of more vehicles. Rather, if the public is behind the move, selectmen could keep an old cruiser instead of trading it when they buy a new one, which is included in this year’s new budget.

Voters will be asked to approve a total budget of about $2.8 million, which is 7.7 percent more than last year. If county, school and municipal budgets are all approved, the tax rate will increase by about 4 percent, Cole said.