Having let its coronavirus precautions expire, the Aberdeen City Council can now turn to more pressing public health risks, like the smoking, fuming conflagrations in our backyards and alleys. The council will give first reading Monday evening to revisions of the open-burning ordinance (see pp. 66–67 in the agenda packet).
The revised ordinance appears to reclassify bonfires and campfires as open burning, not recreational fires… but as I scroll through the strike-throughs and insertions, I’m not convinced the new ordinance would change many burning practices. Current ordinance already says we have to get a permit from the fire chief to burn openly or recreationally… and strangely, this new ordinance would strike the section laying out how the fire chief is to issue such a permit:
Permits for open burning or recreational fires may be issued at the discretion of the fire chief. Application for a permit shall be made at least 48 hours in advance on the form provided by the department and shall be accompanied by an outdoor burning permit fee in the amount provided in the city fee schedule on file in the city finance office. Burning conducted pursuant to the permit shall be subject to all conditions prescribed by the fire department upon issuance of the permit, together with the provisions of this chapter and the city’s adopted fire code [Aberdeen City Code, Section 24-114, proposed for repeal by Ordinance 20-06-04].
These details go away under the new open-burning ordinance: no 48-hour application requirement, no permit fee, no formal connection of the permit to the city fire code or fire department conditions. Evidently this ordinance defaults the permitting process to the fire chief’s rule-promulgation power (Section 24-21), so the fire chief will now have to take time to rewrite the existing permit ordinance as a department rule.
While the new ordinance takes away clarity from permits, it does give the fire chief and other agents of the city more dousing power. The new ordinance authorizes the fire department, the police, and code enforcement personnel to tromp right into your yard and put out any fire. I see no conditions on that “any”, so by a strict interpretation of the proposed text, if your antifa friends come over to have a candlelight vigil to end police violence on your front porch, the cops can immediately come dump cold water on your anti-Trump terrorism.
Current ordinance requires that any fires be at least fifteen feet from any structure. The new ordinance adds that your backyard fire has to be at least ten feet from the adjacent property line and fifteen feet from any combustible material (like children?). The new ordinance restricts burning over underground utility lines or under overhead utility lines or tree branches with fifteen feet of clearnance or less. Portable outdoor fireplaces must also be placed on non-combustible surfaces. The new ordinance. The new ordinance also prohibits burning “when atmospheric conditions or local circumstances make a fire hazardous.”
Finally, the new ordinance adds rooted stumps and animal carcasses to the items you cannot burn in town. The ordinance revisions make no mention of criminal penalties for burning the new city flag, the winning design for which the Chamber of Commerce will announce at the beginning of the meeting.
Recreational burning, an interesting term, is ok.
No Vigils!!!! Remember; covid bugs in the county of Brown.
I’ll bet you had fun with your musical inclusions. 😁
Madonna: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pufec0Hps00
Dude from Midnight Oil took dancing lessons from Elaine Benes.
This might be more appropriate for the fireworks thread:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxmv11KkyyI
I didn’t expect the inclusions, Debbo, but when the phrase “burning desire” hit me toward the end of the post, the notion caught fire. Have Mayor Schaunaman write me a ticket for that recreational burn.
Joe, nice addition! Who needs to smoke up the neighborhood when we could just roll one of our giant TVs outside and huddle together around the glow of great 80s music videos?
Madonna, “Burning Up”—that’s the first time I’ve seen that video. Lasers, Madonna against a funny-shaped door that turns into a rowboat… and notice the recurring motif of the old convertible cruising down the highway at night toward a dangerous liaison, just like in Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire.” Of course, Springsteen used the car to tell the story, while Madonna just needed a reason to put Vanilla Ice’s cuter brother in the video.
I had no idea Mr. H had an MTV VHS collection.
Cathy, Peter Garrett discusses his dancing here:
He also discusses the stagnation of politics, in which he engaged as Australian Minister for School Education, Early Childhood, and Youth from 2010 to 2013:
Remember, Garrett and his mates are singing about redressing racial injustice by giving an entire country back to its indigenous people. There’s the fire Aberdeen should worry about.
YouTube and Apple Music, baby. Trade in your basement shelves of VHS for seven inches of aluminum and glass and switch on the wifi.
Ring of Fire 1961! Not the song, but a whole darn movie! Juvenile delinquents take deputy hostage, girl delinquent tries to seduce deputy, but he resists, then boy delinquent starts a forest fire with a cigarette, and deputy and girl save townspeople with steam train ride out of the fire—wow! What a barnburner! Why can’t cool stuff like that happen around here?
Oh yeah, no forest.
Mr. H, there are cop-like deputies, girls, and forests filled with cigarette smoking delinquents, all around towns in the Black Hills. And, you know this as you have no doubt ridden the ride, they have a steam train they can ride out of the fire, right out of the forest straight into Rapid City just in time for breakfast at Tally’s!
Kristi Noem could play the jailbait seductress (“You’re not getting rid of me, Daddy-O!”). Trump would have to be the train, huffin’ and puffin’ and pushing all the townpeople onto the burning trestle…