PORTSMOUTH — A squeaky wheel has muffled the Salvation Army's bells.

PORTSMOUTH — A squeaky wheel has muffled the Salvation Army's bells.



One day after Sarah Hamilton-Parker called police to complain about noise from the bells near the downtown store where she works, Salvation Army Capt. Deb Coolidge said the local charitable organization will find a quieter “jingle bell.” Also, said Coolidge, she noticed in a Herald photo that a pair of people was ringing Salvation Army bells in the downtown Tuesday and that henceforth, local ringers will be limited to one.



“I certainly appreciate that,” said Hamilton-Parker when given the news. “Anything they can do to knock down that sound.”



Coolidge said she was visited Wednesday morning by crews from two television stations wanting to cover the story, while Hamilton-Parker said she was called by a pair of other news outlets.



Hamilton-Parker said she's complained to the Salvation Army each year for the past four years to ask that the bell ringers move across the street to the front of the North Church. She said the incessant ringing has prompted her to wear earplugs and it's “unfair” that the ringing should be limited to just one area of the business district.



Coolidge said Wednesday she's permitted by the city to have ringers only in that one Market Square location where the annual Christmas tree is erected. “We apply for a permit and that's where they put us,” she said.



Hamilton-Parker said she also tried to convince the Salvation Army that its bell ringers would be better located in front of a coffee shop, for example, where people conduct cash business, instead of in front of jewelry stores where people typically make credit card purchases. Coolidge said the organization has found traffic to be better at that location.



“It's our biggest fundraiser of the year,” she said.



Hamilton-Parker also researched the city's noise ordinance banning excessive noise and said she thinks the fund-raising bell ringers qualify as noise under the ordinance. Police Capt. Mike Schwartz countered that the noise ordinance “doesn't apply” because the city granted permission for the bell-ringing.



Pat James of the Salvation Army's Northern New England Division in Portland, Maine, said Tuesday that the ringers could be given a “dead” non-ringing bell. But instead, Coolidge said she'll look for “a softer bell.”



“We will be sensitive,” she said. “Hopefully, that will be less stressful for her.”



“That's absolutely wonderful,” said Hamilton-Parker.



The Salvation Army is a Christian-based charitable organization and its first known fundraiser using a kettle to collect cash was in 1891.