The Warren Police Department has opened an investigation after local businesses were mentioned in an angry and vaguely threatening note left anonymously over the weekend.

A picture of the note was sent to the Times-Gazette by Sam Glynn, owner of Chomp Kitchen and Drinks, on Water Street. Glynn said that one of the employees at The Wharf Tavern found the note in their business mailbox and shared it with them since they were mentioned. Although The Wharf Tavern was the recipient and did not pursue police assistance, Glynn did report the message to police due to its threatening message.

“YOU ARE NEXT (expletive),” it reads at the top.

“TURN THE MUSIC DOWN

POINT THE SPEAKERS BACK AT THE BUILDING

BE A GOOD NEIGHBOR

BLOUNT - DONE

CHOMP - DONE

WHARF TAVERN…OH, IT’S COMING…AND YOU WON’T LIKE IT”

Lieutenant Christoper Perreault of the Warren Police Department confirmed on Monday that police were looking into who wrote the note after Glynn reported it.

“The Warren Police Department has since reached out to the Wharf Tavern as part of the investigation,” he wrote in an email. “At this time, we do not have any open complaints regarding excessive noise at the Wharf Tavern nor have we recently received any. Should we receive any complaints about excessively loud music, the Warren Police Department will respond and take a noise meter measurement in order to find whether or not the noise is excessive for that particular location and/or time. Ultimately, our goal is to allow businesses to flourish in town while also balancing the quality of life as it pertains to loud music.”

Reached on Monday, Glynn said that he was livid about the note, particularly after Chomp had been instructed by the Town Council in June to restrict their new offering of outdoor music to acoustic performances only, following a probationary trial of outdoor amplified music — a period in which, it should be noted, Police Chief Roy Borges said at that same meeting that police had been called to Chomp for a noise complaint only once, and the sound volume was found to be within legal limits.

“Every time they go on a call or respond to calls they never find any decibel infraction. Whatever the claims are, there’s never any validity to any of them,” Glynn said. “We’re kind of done being neighborly when people are coming at us with threats and speaking to the Town Council and police making erroneous claims. In the spirit of ‘neighborliness’, it doesn’t really check any of the boxes.”

Glynn said that a handful (or less) of people complaining shouldn’t be enough to dictate whether or not something like outdoor music is made available to an entire neighborhood of people who may be in favor hearing it. He added that the acts they had booked back in the spring to play over the summer had to cancel after the acoustic mandate was handed down.

“We’ve had so many people come and say they want to speak in favor of how great having music was, or how shortsighted of a decision it was for the Council to listen to one or two neighbors and let them rule over how the whole street is operated,” he said. “We don’t have any music outside now, all summer, which is insane, because it’s something that people really did enjoy.”

Glynn said that they were looking forward to making a case at an upcoming Town Council meeting to restore the outdoor music, and that anyone who had a problem with it should come forward in person.

“I’d like to see who did it,” he said. “If you’re that passionate about what you’re saying, come have a meeting with us, don’t put a note in a mailbox and run away from it. They know where to find us.”