enlarge Matt Wickenheiser/Staff Writer

Customers flock to an ice cream truck on Albion Street in Portland.

Click here to hear "The Entertainer."

Click here to hear "Pop Goes the Weasel."

Click here to hear "Do Your Ears Hang Low?"

Lauren Moslander moved gently to the beat as she entertained her 9-month-old daughter, Savvy, atop Munjoy Hill.

She blushed pink and admitted, when asked, that yes, she was dancing to the calliope-like music coming from the slowly approaching ice cream truck.

She didn't know the name of the catchy tune but remembered it had been on a video game's soundtrack. (For the record, it was Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer," famously on the soundtrack of "The Sting," a 1973 movie featuring Robert Redford and Paul Newman.)

You know the song.

As Portland heats up, you can hear it -- or "Pop Goes the Weasel" or "Do Your Ears Hang Low?" -- time and time again as ice cream truck drivers try to attract customers.

Those songs led to a springtime brouhaha this week, with City Councilor Kevin Donoghue's e-mailed inquiry to residents, asking whether the trucks and their music were a pain or a plus.

Donoghue said he had received several constituent inquiries about the trucks and what could be done about them, so he posed the questions to the public.

He got at least 50 responses within about five hours.

"The results are sufficiently mixed that it makes good policy sense to leave well enough alone," said Donoghue. "I intend to treat this issue the same way I treat the ice cream truck -- ignore it and hope it goes away."

Portland residents interviewed Tuesday mirrored the mixed reaction Donoghue described.

Moslander, for instance, paused dancing long enough to note that the music "gets a little annoying after awhile."

Her fiance, Joshua Cousins, said the main problem is that the truck's music can be heard from a mile away.

"I don't mind them, I just wish the volume went down," he said.

Down the hill a bit on Congress Street, though, Tony Sequeira and Angie Purinton enjoyed the sun and the strains of the music fading.

"I don't call this a nuisance at all," said Sequeira. "You hear the tune, and it's like summer's here."

Most days, he's not around the house and hears the truck only once. But when he's around, Sequeira said, sometimes the truck goes by four or five times.

"If I have the day off, sometimes I want to strangle him," Sequeira said.

Riding a scooter home from the East End Community School, 6-year-old Will Brewster said he likes the truck. Does he get ice cream from it?

"That's what I like about it," he said.

Duh -- stupid question.

The music, he said, was OK. Asked whether the city should keep them or get rid of them, his answer was direct:

"Keep them," he said, peering out from under his black helmet with a sporty Power Ranger sticker.

His mom, Jeanine Brewster, said she doesn't really consider the trucks a nuisance but thinks they come by at the wrong time, before dinner. And, she added, the treats are overpriced.

According to the city, only one company, Northeast Ice Cream LLC of Exeter, N.H., is licensed to operate trucks in Portland, and the company has two here.

Jason Klein, the local manager for the company, said he has 16 trucks that run out of South Portland, from Kennebunk to Waterville. He declined to say how many drivers he employs but did say they are all independent contractors.

Though he hadn't heard about Councilor Donoghue's inquiry, he noted that since his trucks were the only ones operating in Portland, it was directed at his business.

"I think it's an American tradition," said Klein. "It would be a shame if it disappears because someone didn't like the song."

Klein said his operators know they should shut off the music when they're stopped and selling ice cream. But, he said, they have to play while they slowly drive around to attract customers.

"It's a fine line between playing it too loud and missing your customers," said Klein.

Klein said he does drive a truck occasionally, and people do sometimes complain about...