It wasn't exactly the Hatfields and the McCoys, but when members of the Henrietta Town Board met last week to review permit requests for the Wat Lao Buddhadham, they were looking at a room divided. The Lao community sat mostly on one side of room, while a small group of the Buddhist temple's neighbors sat on the other.

Members of the temple at 135 Martin Road in Henrietta, mostly Buddhists from the area's Lao community, applied for special use permits to hold four outdoor events during the summer months. Past events have riled neighbors, who complained that the music was too loud. Some residents were also concerned about the traffic. As many as 500 people attend the festivals, which are usually held on a Saturday or Sunday.

Jeff Wilkinson, Henrietta's building and fire prevention director, attended a 2007 event at the temple. He told board members last week that things seemed to go well.

"I was there at noon," he said. "I talked with residents and there was no problem.'

But some of the same residents Wilkinson spoke with last summer had apparently changed their minds.

Festivals shouldn't be held in residential neighborhoods, said Bill Carley. He lives on East River Road across from the temple.

"When I moved here, this was a quiet residential neighborhood," he said. "That's why most of us moved here. And we pay taxes. They don't."

And the festival really didn't end at 6 p.m., Carley said. It went on into the evening. Another resident said the drum beating and bass from the live band made her windows rattle, and if the permits were granted, she'd have to leave town on those days.

Wat Lao organizes 12 special gatherings during the year. Most are held inside the temple, and noise hasn't been a problem. Though temple leaders call them festivals, they are more like a small-scale mix of religious ceremony, food, and live music. Guests bring exotic Lao dishes of fruits, vegetables, pork, and sticky rice - a Lao favorite.

But the events are also fundraisers. Laotians put money into bowls placed on serving tables. They also create tree-shaped crafts and attach money to them as gifts to the monks.

"This is the only way we raise money," said temple leader Tom Siriphanthong, Speaking so softly that board members had to ask him several times to use the microphone, Siriphanthong said the money is needed to support the temple.

The Lao Buddhist Corporation purchased more than 60 acres at the Martin Road site in the mid-‘90's, and temple leaders are raising money, Siriphanthong said, to build a 20,000-square-foot community center within the next three years.

"We teach English to the elderly and Lao to the children," he said. "It is very important to us to preserve our culture, but we want to be good neighbors. We hope we can find a compromise."

But at least one person speaking on behalf of the Lao community said that she feared neighbors were not comfortable living next door to the Lao Buddhists.

"I teach English as a second language, and I have worked with these people for a while," Debbie Close said. "I think I can be objective. And I have to say it because I know they won't, but some strange things have been happening to them."

Complaints about loud noises were made to Henrietta officials when hardly anyone was at the temple, she said, and the temple's mailbox has been knocked down four times.

Wat Lao Buddhadham is not included on the town's website, which lists more than 20 other places of worship in the Henrietta area. But Town Supervisor Mike Yudelson said the temple and the Lao community are "welcome members of the town of Henrietta."

And Council Member Bill Mulligan said he wanted to be sure that the Wat Lao temple is being treated fairly.

"Why are these people being asked to apply for a permit in the first place?" he said. "Other churches hold fundraisers and outdoor events and they aren't getting permits. Does the town's code the way it's written even address this sort of thing?"

Henrietta's town code regarding special use permits doesn't specifically address church fundraisers in residential neighborhoods, Henrietta legal counsel Dan Mastrella said.

"It's subject to interpretation," Mastrella said. "And it's never been contested. It probably is something that needs to be looked at."

In a telephone interview after the meeting, Supervisor Yudelson said the town's former fire marshal recommended that Wat Lao apply for a special use permit because the fundraising was not a once-a-year event.

"The previous fire marshal felt it put the code in a gray area because of the multiple dates involved," Yudelson said.

The board unanimously approved Wat Lao's Saturday, June 14 event with some stipulations, primarily that the live music doesn't disturb the temple's neighbors. Temple leaders and residents both agreed that using a decibel meter as a measuring device will help to monitor sound levels.

Board members will meet again on Wednesday, June 18, after the first event, to consider Wat Lao's other permit applications.