Recreational Fires Must Be Eliminated

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WELCOME TO HELL ON EARTH

The air is smoky from burning wood in North St. Paul, MN, almost every evening. It is a nightmare. What used to be a nice place to live has become a living hell.

WARNING: If you buy a house in North St. Paul, MN, you will regret it! It may be the biggest, most expensive mistake you ever make. You will breathe smoky air almost every day of your life in this town. This is not an exaggeration. The wood smoke in this town gets heavy and gets heavy often. When you want to get out of this dump of a town, how many people do you think are going to want to buy a house in a city where heavy air pollution every night is normal and clean air is rare? This blog gets thousands of visitors every year. The word is out: North St. Paul is a horrible place to live!

Fresh air is very rare around here. If you are considering moving to North St. Paul or buying a home here, I strongly recommend that you do not do it no matter how good of a price you get. The only way you will be happy in this town is if you love breathing smoky air almost every day. North St. Paul, MN, is a horrible place to live because of the smoky air!

Burning wood, grass, leaves, paper, cardboard, and sometimes plastic, construction materials, and chemicals, if it is combustible it gets burned in North St. Paul and you are going to breathe it.

The air was smoky 25 out of 31 evenings in July 2009. We had 37 hours of continuous wood smoke in the air Aug. 29th - 31st. There was wood smoke in the air 19 consecutive evenings from Aug. 21st to Sept. 8th. It rained heavily on Aug. 20th, providing the only relief we got from wood smoke for almost three weeks.

Is this a good way to live? No. It is a horrible way to live. Take it from someone who knows. Breathing smoky, polluted air every day is misery.

Every day in this city several people are having recreational fires. Every evening the air is filled with the stench of burning wood. I am one person sick and tired of breathing smoky air every day. Is it too much to ask to be able to breathe fresh air in your own home?

Who is responsible for this wood smoke nightmare? The four city council members are responsible. Council members Jan Walczak, Bob Bruton, Terry Furlong, and Dave Zick have refused to do anything about this wood smoke problem. They don't care if you have a child with asthma. They don't care if you have to live like a shut-in because the air is so polluted. They don't care if your sinuses burn because the wood smoke is so heavy.

Our four Council members have defended the rights of a small percentage of households to burn wood daily over the rights of all the rest of us to breathe.

You have no right to breathe under Walczak, Bruton, Furlong, and Zick. Burners have the right to burn wood 49 hours a week recreationally. The rest of us have no rights at all.

If you are considering purchasing real estate in the city of North Saint Paul, Minnesota (55109), factor this blog carefully into your decision. Buying a home in this city means that your kids will breathe smoky air while playing in the yard almost every day. Your baby will breathe smoky air in her crib should you leave the windows open around your house. If you leave your windows open you will wake up in the middle of the night choking on smoky air.

Perhaps worst of all, your utility rates will be high because you will have to run the air conditioner instead of leaving the windows open on a cool summer evening. You have no other choice because almost every night the air is too smoky to breathe in this city. Consider this blog your warning.

North St. Paul, Minnesota, is a wonderful community other than the wood smoke. If we could restore fresh air like we used to enjoy, life would be happy again. But that is not going to happen any time soon.

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Saturday, July 12, 2008

Saturday 07/12/2008 Burning

7:45 PM: That jerk neighbor down the street is burning wood. A huge plume of smoke is coming from his backyard. Every window in the house was open. Now the whole damn house reeks of burning wood. I had to run around shutting windows.

Every day this week the air conditioning has been on except for today. Today's high was around 80. Burning this entire week was limited due to high temperatures and it rained last night. Temperatures all week long were in the 80s and low 90s with high humidity. Only one day this week was the air smoky, I think it was Wednesday or Thursday evening. I've been going to bed early this week since I had to be up early so I haven't been able to track it until 11 PM as I usually do.

You see this council member Walczak? Why the hell should we have to live like this? Whenever it is cool enough to open the windows the air is too smoky to breathe! When I emailed you, you brushed me off. I and others are going to work real hard to replace you and your do nothing colleagues on the city council unless we get satisfactory action quickly.

How many people do you think enjoy breathing smoky air when they are sitting in their living rooms reading or watching TV, Ms. Walczak? Do you think any of them do? I do not need to be reminded of the hours of burning in this city. City ordinance provides 49 hours of burn time each week and it is way too much!

I CAN'T EVEN BREATHE IN MY OWN HOME!

Tonight the low temperature is supposed to be around 59 degrees. With the recent hot weather, I anticipate tonight will be a smoky hell due to the pent up desire to burn wood by some people. That means the windows will have to be left closed all night. I'll have to sleep in a stuffy house again!

I apologize for my anger. I am just sick to death of breathing smoky air nearly every day in this city. It should not be like this. It never used to be like this. This city used to be a great place to live. Now its like living in a fire pit.

9:30 PM: The stench of wood smoke is so strong you can't breathe if you step outside. Just sticking my head out the back door for a few seconds left my shirt smelling like smoke. What's worse is that the smell of the smoke is seeping in around the weather stripping on one of the windows. Even with windows closed I can smell the smoke around that window.

10:30 PM: Heavy smokiness. Can't take any more of this smoky city. Leaving windows closed and going to sleep.

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