With Monday’s Question of the Week, we asked readers whether Unicoi, which recently received complaints from residents about the burning of waste, should regulate it. Here are some of the responses we received.
Protect air quality
We are one of the closest houses to this burn site. There were days that we could not be outside and had to rush in and out the door to keep the smoke from entering our home. We both suffered respiratory illness that led to near walking pneumonia.
The issue was the business burning material that smoldered for weeks. The landscaper is bringing items from work sites to this site which is specifically prohibited.
The town should have an ordinance to prohibit businesses from burning that causes air quality issues. The business is also driving trucks on and off of the property and leaving deposits of mud on the highway. This could cause an accident due to slick conditions. The business should have gravel placed on the property to alleviate the mud.
CONNIE ROBERTS
Unicoi
Rural areas offer more freedom
My first reaction to that question was no. The reasoning is that most, if not all, of the community is really rural in nature, and as such, any party who buys property in the community is aware of that fact and does tacitly agree that more rules are not needed.
Therefore, if you have a disagreement with your neighbor, you need to resolve the issue person to person. That is the way grown and responsible neighbors get along with each other.
JACK COHOON
Johnson City
Clean air for everyone
Clean air matters! Certainly this is a health issue, and this was the reason that a neighbor in Unicoi County complained to the town officials. It’s good that at least the offending neighbor who was burning organic waste did receive a request to cease burning, but, from my own experience in my own neighborhood, I can understand the complainant’s frustration.
All my life I have suffered from sinus allergies. And I have neighbors in Washington County that burn their trash rather than pay $18/month for weekly trash pickup. I live on Buffalo Mountain and have a beautiful view from my front porch, but oftentimes I am driven back onto my home due to the toxic smell of burning plastics, etc. And what exacerbates this aggravation is that the burning is done on Sunday when I am home resting from the workweek. So, how about maybe a “Sunday law” against burning?
I have a seasonal home in northern Maine. I notice every summer that my allergies go away there due to the very clean winds that come from Canada. As a young man, my mother used to say that, yes, the air was cleaner in New England.
Outside burning is similar to smoking cigarettes: if one does it, they shouldn’t don’t do it around others.
Clean air belongs to everyone. If it’s in the power of people to keep the air that we all breathe clean, then we ought to.
I believe that there should be burning permits and regulations in all jurisdictions: city, town, county, state, national, and international!
SYDNEY DODD FRISSELL JR.
Johnson City
E pluribus unum
Should Unicoi regulate burning?
Funny thing, “Unicoi,” a Cherokee word means, “white, hazy, fog-like, or fog draped.” Is this pertinent to the issue, or just a coincidence?
The questions about property rights and individual choice and infringement on community rights are a timely question. It appears these questions have permeated politics, school systems, medical health and religion. The question really is not about burning, or about county or city control; but about where our conscience and attitudes toward others lie.
Briefly, it is my opinion burning should be allowed if a resident has acreage enough to allow for smoke/odors and possible hazardous fumes be dissipated prior to exiting the property. Burning should be permitted for residents during certain hours, with proper permits, wind restrictions, with listed unacceptable items to be burned, restricted accelerants, and proper after burning clean-up to ensure groundwater aquifers are not affected.
As the population of Johnson City grows and becomes harder to reside in, the suburbs, Jonesborough, Piney Flats, Unicoi, and so on will incur more infrastructure development, apartments and housing and industrial growth. This is a natural progression and will require an acceptance from the current citizens that generations of the status quo will change.
This inevitable change will require the attitudes and acceptance of others to become realized. As families move on and sell acreage, soon a larger population will require a community to embrace changing attitudes, philosophical outlooks and ethnic diversity. These changes mean individual rights are bound to be modified. Though not tremendously religious, I attend services weekly, and last Sunday, the Third Sunday after Epiphany, a reading from 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, “Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body.”
STERLING LOUIS
Johnson City
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