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The bells of St. Elizabeth Catholic Church have been music to the ears of some neighbors, but others say the ringing disturbs them.

Julie Winston, whose back yard faces the Rockville church on Montrose Road, said she was first bothered by the light that shone from the bell tower into the upstairs of her house, but became more horrified when she heard the bells tolling.

Winston, who has lived 38 years in the Tilden Woods community, located across Montrose from the church, said the bells originally rang out every 15 minutes between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. seven days a week for "a minimum of 48 different times a day.

"It was awful," she said, saying they toll more frequently on weekends.

But Monsignor John F. Macfarlane, pastor of St. Elizabeth, said the church is within its rights to ring the bells and has done its best to work with neighbors who might be upset.

"The church has been here since 1964 and we do our best to cooperate with residents and be a good neighbor and we continue to do that today," he said.

Macfarlane added that while he has not met with residents, other members of the parish have.

Winston said she and Macfarlane have never spoken or met despite her attempts.

A church facilities manager told her he would work to dim the light on the tower, but there was nothing he could do about the bells, she said.

Winston then contacted the county's Department of Environmental Protection to see if the department could send a specialist to measure the noise levels.

Esther Bowring, a county spokeswoman, said the ambient background noise levels from Winston's back yard were 50 to 53 decibels before the bells rang and 57 to 60 decibels after.

A second measurement taken on another day indicated the bells rang at 58 to 60 decibels, she said.

Bowring said the county's noise ordinance for a residential zone states that noise levels cannot exceed 65 decibels between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. weekends and holidays, which means St. Elizabeth is in compliance.

Although the church sits within Rockville city limits, the county is responsible for setting and enforcing the noise level standards.

Over the spring, complaints from Winston and other residents prompted the church to put a filter on the light and reduce the ringing to the hour and the half-hour instead of every quarter-hour, she said.

"That's better, but the bell is just awful," she said. "It's been almost a year and at 9 a.m. every morning it still wakes me up. We can't leave our bedroom windows open when it's nice out or even sit in our own back yard and read a book without losing concentration."

Jim Wasilak, chief of planning for the City of Rockville, said St. Elizabeth was granted a zoning and height variance of 15 additional feet in September 2006 for construction of the freestanding bell tower.

He said one condition of the variance states that St. Elizabeth was to seek comments from "interested neighbors" within a half-mile radius of the church about the bell program.

But according to an Oct. 22 letter to the city's mayor and council from Steve Cordell, a member of the board for the Chadsberry Home Owners Association, the church has not sought comments. The small Chadsberry community sits on Tildenwood Drive behind the church.

"The church management has consistently avoided meeting with the community to discuss the bell ringing schedule," he wrote.

Macfarlane said the church has cooperated with the community and listened to its concerns.

"We used to ring it four times an hour and now we ring it two [times], so I think that's a fair conclusion," he said.

The bell tower was something parishioners had wanted for 12 years, Macfarlane said.

"So when we were financially able to do so, we did it," he said.

Wasilak said the city is trying to facilitate a meeting between that community and the church.

Cordell could not be reached for comment by Gazette press time.

Michael Garson, president of the North Farm Citizen's Association, which sits to the west of the church within city limits, said he has never been bothered by the bells. He solicited responses from his community through an e-mail list and said he received no negative comments from the 15 residents who replied.

"One gentleman said it reminded him of the church bells in Europe," Garson said.

He added his neighbors find the trains that travel the nearby CSX tracks to be more of a problem, but said he could see how neighbors who live closer might have a different opinion.

"The bells have never been disruptive and it's pleasing when I do hear them," Garson said. "They've never woken me or my children up and we sometimes sleep with the windows open."