BUTLER TWP — Township commissioners voted unanimously Monday night to seek a second exemption from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Enforcement to allow local police to handle noise enforcement at businesses which serve alcohol.

The 5-0 vote comes a little more than one year after township officials voted in December 2015 to take over enforcing their own noise ordinance and shed the LCE’s regulations. The LCE rules are applied statewide unless municipalities request otherwise and prove, through a public hearing, that they are capable of appropriately enforcing an acceptable system of noise regulations on businesses.

In Butler Township the issue came to a head after a long-running dispute between a Greenwood Drive tavern, Rock Ann Haven bar, and two neighbors who repeatedly reported noise violations to the LCE.

After a public hearing the LCE granted the township a one-year permit to enforce its own noise ordinance, which is much less strict than the LCE rules. Township Police Chief John Hays told commissioners Monday night that the department received only three noise complaints against businesses for 2016 — two of which police determined were unfounded — and none against Rock Ann Haven.

To earn another exemption from the LCE the township will have to hold another public hearing on the issue with state officials, said township Zoning Officer Jessie Hines. He said that the state could grant an exception lasting from one to three years this time, if the township is successful. No hearing date was immediately set Monday night.