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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Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Tuesday 06/29/2010 Air Pollution

North St. Paul is smoky all over the place this evening. Except where we live.....for the time being. I went out looking for smoke this evening and by the time I got back home my clothes reeked of wood smoke. I had to take off my clothes and put them in a plastic bag down by the washing machine. That is how polluted the air is in North St. Paul, MN. You step outside for 15 to 20 minutes and you smell like you spent hours in a smoky bar. That is how city council members Jan Walczak, Bob Bruton, Dave Zick, and Terry Furlong make us live! After I finish updating this post, I will require a shower before bed.

You don't appreciate fresh air until you have an evil city council that makes you breathe smoky air every day.

4:30 PM: No wood smoke. 72 degrees, sunny, cool, beautiful weather.

5:15 PM: Faint grass smoke for a few minutes. Then it was gone.

7:00 PM: No wood smoke yet.

8:00 PM: No wood smoke.

9:00 PM: No wood smoke where we live. Wood smoke everywhere else. It did not take long to find smoky, polluted air tonight. Starting from east to west.



1) Light to moderate wood smoke in the area by the parking lot on the eastern edge of Silver Lake at Park Row & 20th Ave. It was faintly smoky all along the south shore of the lake. The wood smoke was strongest here. I could not find the source of the wood smoke. The wood smoke extended from point 1 at least down to Charles and possibly farther. There were people lighting off fireworks in the park in front of the slide at 19th Ave. & Margaret St. so it smelled like gunpowder smoke there.

2) Moderate wood smoke in front of the second house east of Helen St. on the north side of 19th Ave. I've seen a number of bonfires at that house over the past two years. Tonight, they had a small bonfire that produced a lot of smoke. The bonfire was probably not more than 18 inches high, well below the 3-foot limit in North St. Paul's recreational burning ordinance. I could hardly see the fire from Helen Street because it was so small. That one tiny fire smoked up the air on 19th down to Longview a full tenth of a mile away with faint wood smoke. Unfortunately, the smoke seemed to be drifting to the west. City council member Jan Walczak lives a few houses directly north of the house with the bonfire. I did not smell any smoke in front of her house. She doesn't have to breathe the smoky air she supports. If anyone deserves to breathe smoky, polluted air on a cool, beautiful summer evening like this, it is Jan Walczak.

3) Light wood smoke on Helen St. north of Beam Ave. and south of Lydia Ave. There is a frequent burner up here. Every time I am up here the air is smoky. I could not locate the source of the burning. I could not tell if it was coming from the North St. Paul side or the Maplewood side or if it was coming from a house on Helen or further east on Lake Blvd.

4) Light wood smoke at the house on the northeast corner of 19th Ave. & Chippewa Ave. I saw a small cloud of smoke a block away and went down to see wood smoke coming from the back side of the garage. I could not see a fire. I know there is a grass burner down here somewhere. I did not smell any grass tonight.

9:20 PM: No wood smoke where we live. Back home now. I reek of wood smoke. This city is a polluted nightmare.

10:00 PM: No wood smoke where we live. Fresh, cool air!

10:35 PM: Still no wood smoke where we live. 63 degrees.

11:05 PM: The is a very faint trace of some type of smoke in the air. I cannot say it is wood as it is not strong enough to tell. The air is mostly clear but not fresh.

11:30 PM: Very faint trace of some type of smoke continues. Off to bed.

There was a very faint amount of wood smoke in the air after midnight. We did not make it through the night without noticeable wood smoke in the air. We were close.
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