I read the city newsletter this morning and found that someone at city hall has a sense of humor. Not a funny sense of humor, a cruel one like rubbing salt in an open wound. The city newsletter offers suggestions for saving energy and money on utility bills. The newsletter offers this advice:
If your area cools off in the evening, take advantage of the cool evenings to cool off your entire house. Open windows and doors with screens to bring the inside temperature down.
What a great suggestion! I am sure none of us living in North St. Paul would have ever thought of that. The only problem is the air is so damn smoky every evening that you can't open your windows. You are a prisoner in your own home most evenings in this town. Opening your windows will bring all the wood smoke in and your entire house will reek of burning wood. You will choke on smoky air in bed at night as the wood smoke in this city often lasts well into the morning hours and is so strong you can't breathe. Wood smoke contains carcinogens and is a health hazard. Someone at city hall wants us to breathe poisonous air.
Us and all of our neighbors have to run our air conditioners on cool evenings because of the wood smoke pollution in this city. When it is 65 degrees and cool with low humidity, the air is usually too smoky to open the windows. I can see my neighbors' windows and they are usually closed at night, as are ours. I have heard my neighbors' air conditioners running on many cool nights when we should be able to open the windows but cannot. And you never know when someone will start burning wood after 11 PM or leave a bonfire smoldering all night. That happens often.
Ten years ago we left the windows open all the time except when it got really hot. We could leave the windows open for days or weeks at a time and never had to worry about wood smoke. Wood burning is so common these days that almost every evening is smoky. North St. Paul is a nightmare. The four members of the city council have refused to do anything about it. Mayor Kuehn is the only city leader who has offered to help.