Public Safety Minutes 1998 08-31-98 UNfi'ED CITY OF YORKVILLE
Committee Minutes—Public Safety
Date of Meeting:August 31, 1998 Time Convened 6:30 P-M.
Location. 111 W. Fox Time Adjourned:9:05 P.M.
Attendees:
Nancy James
Robert W. James Jr.
Rose Spears
Tony Graf
.harry Kot
Richard Sticks
Valerie Burd
Kathy Farren
Jeff Spang
Art Prochaska
Mayor Bob Johnson
Discussion:
1 ) open Burning Ordinance —Recreational Fire Guidelines - Graff had a meeting-
There is a conflict with the current ordinance from 1996. Ordinance States�open
burning during daylight hours. Original ordinance does not list any times for
campfires or recreational fires. Are we going to eliminatT mourn lle
People are burning things that are not untreated paper
Nancy James surveyed 125 residents on the south side of the river- se
attached for comments and report)- At the time of our garbage
were only two companies serving the Yorkville area. Waste Management and
BFI. Now that this area is growing we do have more options. We tried to get the
best contract possible_ Prochaska thinks that we may be able to renegotiate•
Graff feels that about 90 percent of the,residents are not burn ing leaves. Graff
would like to bring suggestions back to the next meeting on recreational
campfires. Spang would like to know the number of complaints on fires at the
next meeting. Safety is the number one concern. Bring back suggestions to next
meeting after staff has discussed it-
2.) Budget Review FY 98/99 — Overtime Usage Report Reviewed — We are in
compliance with overtone- We are limit Some of the items over 100
are things over or at 100 perce nt in the budge
percent are giant items that we will be reimbursed for.
3.) July Police Reports—Retail thieves are high because of the Sheil Station They
have done one step with the swipe cards. We are discussing different ideas there.
One person was stopped, they had been into the store and had a recce had
items that were purchased. But the cashier you have ogbe able too show intent to
two thieves also- In order to press charges y Burglaries ' there Were four
steal. Walking into the store shows intent to pay.
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commercial burglaries. Money missing after closing. You do nott Have to show
signs of forced entry. Kot would like to see a comparison from last year. Traffic
violations are way down. Officers are doing more walking and talking- July is a
heavy vacation time. 21.5 hours of vacation have been taken. Drug and alcohol
violations are way down also. Do not include number of stops on the report-
Squad report does not include the new cars_ Reconditioning has not been done
yet-
4_) C.O.P.S. Grant Award -- Universal Hiring — Recommendation to Sign Award
Letter to Hire New COPS Officer— Graff received a call from the Department of
Justice reminding us that we have had letter since July 2- They were asking if we
were going to accept the grant or not. Graff told them that the letter had been
signed but it needed to go through the proper Committees- $225,000 is what we
have already received for three new officers that we have already hired If we
hire someone then we will be at $300,000. This will take us into 2002 before we
have to start absorbing their full salary. We just assumed one salary, in December
of 99, and in 2000 we will assume another salary. Graff is looking at spring to
hire. He does feel there is a need We currently have 15 officers effectively
being used. We are in the normal range for where we should be according to the
studies. We have four specialty officers. Graff does not feel that the overtime
will go down much. Overtime is pretty low. With the new contract the first 40
hours are at straight time- The cost to us initially is approximately $28,600 plus
24 percent to be about $38,000 with benefits. We assume $13,000 in the
beginning. firing would depend on how the budget looks as well as
development. If we were to hire someone to start May 1, they will need to go
through six weeks of field training. Spang feels we should hire before the end of
May so the person would be ready to go by vacation time. This needs to go
through Committee, COW and City Council. If chairman or Mayor would like to
meet and go over Graff is willing. Graff will write letter- Mayor Johnson would
like to see better justification. Kot would like to see some long-term plans.
Spang feels that if we think we are going to hire in the next year or two then we
should take advantage of federal money. Prochaska would also like to see a long-
term plan. Man-hours are dedicated to certain things. We have the lowest
amount of crime in the County. Graff will put together justification and long-
term plans. Bring back to next meeting. Graff feels that we will hire five officers
in the next three years..
5.) Downtown Park Update—Ameritech parking is moving forward. Landscape plan
has been brought forward Limited view. Angled parking. Bring back.
6.) Web Site Coordinator — Nothing has been done with the proposal from Brian
Spengler. Molly has agreed to be the Coordinator. She would like a stipend and
health insurance. She is currently working 40 hours a week- Graff needs to meet
with Nanninga once he gets back from vacation to go over proposals_ Spengler's
proposal is for approximately $7,000 to train everyone how to use it Molly
needs to know what to include. The URL (Uniform Record Locator) belongs to
Spengler- He may be willing to sell it- Wheeler has a URL defined as a universal
URL- When it comes to COW we will see an actual job description. Take to
COW.
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• 7.) Part-Time Police Officer — Proposed New Salary Schedule — Proposing to
increase salary from $9 per hour to $10 per hour. One to two years $10.50 per
year, two to three years $11 per hour. We have not increased the salary of the
part time officers. Graff is looking to hire another part time officer. That would
bring us to five part time officers. We have to call our regular officers before we
can call a part time officer in situations of emergency. We can schedule part time
officers for events that are scheduled like the Riverfront Festivals. We have three
part-time officers that will go from $9 per hour to $10.50 per hour. Graff is
looking for a way to keep our part time officers here. This will help them to have
some goals. If they have no prior experience in the County then they may have to
go through 60 hours of orientation without pay. Take to COW.
S_) Review Organizational Chart—No discussion.
9.) Review Current Traffic Plan—High School Area— Graff meet with the School.
We need to have an officer at the school at the end of the day to help release
traffic. There are approximately 240 cars exiting plus 60 buses. Graff said it
takes about 15 minutes. We will need to review this again in 30 days_ Both
schools release at the same time. If there has been staggered start and end times it
would have made a world of difference. Start and ends times can not be changed
for this year. Next year the start and end times can be staggered Prochaska feels
that around the curve on Game Farm Road would be a great place for a sidewalk.
Kids are crossing the street and walling through parking lots. There should be a
sidewalk along Rt. 47 up to the stoplight also. It is very dangerous to cross at
Main Street but kids are running across Rt. 47 so they can walk through the park.
Continue to monitor and bring back.
New Business:
1.) Recommendations to Hire Part-Time Police Officer— Graff is looking to hire a
part time officer currently living in Fox Hill Subdivision. He is a retired officer
from Chicago. Chicago is sending us all his information. He has 31 years of
experience. Once back ground check is complete Graff would like to move
forward.
2_) Technology Update — File Server Upgrade and Y2K Plan — Currently doing an
inventory of all software and hardware. Our file server is way overloaded but
right now we are just working on Y2K plan. Graff does not think compliance is
any problem. Graff is only working on the Police Department Graff has been
notified by the Grant Department stating that we have to have a Y2K plan.
Software is being worked on. File server needs to be upgraded. Graff only has
two computers that have hardware that is not in compliance.
3.) Riverfront Festival Security Plan — Graff figures that we will be using
approximately 130 hours of overtime_ The County ESDA will help with traffic
and volunteers,then officers may get sent home early_
4.) Canine Unit Proposal — Graff received a proposal but he did not have enough
information for justification. Oswego has a canine unit. We currently use
Dekalb's unit. A canine unit is good for searching hotel/motel parking lots.
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• Sometimes it can take one to two hours for Dekalb to get here. We are looking at
a passive canine unit. They are good for tracking and sniffing-applied for another
5.) Illinois Violence Prevention COPS Grant Proposal — Graf app
grant We applied for$12,192. Grant is for troubled kids. It is a contract service.
10 percent of Barry's time. Seventh grade DARE started this week. This will
help enhance Barry's position. Only 15 departments applied for this grant.
6.) North East Illinois Chapter A-S.S.E. Safety Grant Proposal — American Safety
Foundation request. We should hear something in September. We have
requested safety helmets for each child. Items that will help the lions club.
Additional Business
Bicycle Safety—We would be designating certain streets as a bike route. Maybe
allowing parking on one side of the street to allow an actual bike route. This
would also help our children get through town. There would be a route to get to
the schools and maybe Countryside. You would not want to walk on the bile
route. Graff will check into this.
MDT Project — Going to COW. Looking to enter into an agreement at $22 per
month.
Meeting with IDOT—Kathy Farren received a call from Idot_ They would like to
have a meeting with the City and the downtown businesses. They would like to
meet sometime after Labor Day. This is to address issues of concern. Then we
would need to have a public meeting.
Minutes by: Mollie Anderson
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Date: ( I qk
RE: On he ubject of Leaf and Brush Pickups in the City of
Yorkvil e
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Public Safety Committee:
Before I speak on the wording of the open Burning ordinance
I would like to mention a very frequent observance and request
of several residents who live south of the Fox River. As I
was taking the following survey of the 125 people South of the
Fox River to see where they stand on the open burning issue
several of the residents asked me if I could ask our Alderman
for more brush pickups between May and November and/or a phone
number they could call to get on a list to have their brush
picked up between brush pickups. one residents' idea was "Maybe
they can post the extra pickups in the Mayors ' Message Paper
along with the phone number." Residents who stated that they
have much more brush than most residents to dispose of, said
they would greatly appreciate the efforts of anyone involved
with carrying the extra pickups out. I would like to mention
that some residents are also concerned about children they have
seen playing around their brush piles near the street as cars
whiz by.Also, it may help to decrease the number of residents
who feel they have to burn their brush late at nite to dispose
of it.
Thankyou,
Nancy A. J es
Registered er of the C' y of Yorkville
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. DATE: � 3
COMMENT TO UBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE OF YORKVILLE, ILLINOIS
■ NOTATION ON WASTE REMOVAL SERVICES:
HOLD THE GARBAGE COMPANY HOSTAGE WITH COMPETITION FOR MORE
WASTE REMOVAL SERVICES THAT ARE NEEDED BY THE RESIDENT, EVEN
IF THE CITY HAS TO GIVE UP FREEBEES IN EXCHANGE. (freebees should
not be an issue because the garbage company most likely does
not have to pay for the city to get the "Freebees" , in fact
they may even get a ' rake off ' by being advertised on our
Citys' Property, so they should be giving us a break)
HOW?
The City should demand that the garbage company provide adaquate
amounts of brush and yard waste pickups weekly from May thru
November, and weekly pickups of unlimited garbage removal. The
City should contract with the garbage company to fulfill adaquate
yardwaste and brush pickups removal at no extra charge in
exchange for a couple dollars more on each residents garbage
bill. This city does not need an HMO GARBAGE COMPANY DEAL WHERE
ONE LITTLE SIZE FITS ALL. Some families have a lot more garbage
than others depending on their size. The same applies to brush
and yardwaste removal. To expect families to pay more money
for the company to carry away more garbage and yardwaste is
not fair to the residents when they feel they are already paying
the company to take their garbage and the little bit of
yardwaste they take. Either charge a little more for garbage
removal on the residents bills or allow for the unlimited amount
of garbage removal, but do not remove half of the residents
garbage and yardwaste, and hold him hostage for payment to remove
the rest. When a new contract is made with a garbage company,
the contract probably should include a clause for re-negotiations
over the life of the contract, a clause for picking up an
unlimited amount of garbage for only a couple dollars more on
everyonesI garbage bill, a clause for picking up lawn waste
every week April thru November for no extra char a and a clause
for getting out of the contract if needed should be put into
it; ( which would say " Either party reserves the right to
pull out of the contract for any reason, but must give the other
party a 30 day notice) ."The contract the City of Yorkville
presently has is not family friendly and appears to penalize
those who do not fit into their garbage size of a pickup."
Greed is the name of the game when freebees are offered in place
of waste disposal removal service. When a garbage company offers
freebees to a city, the "FREEBEES GET CAPITALIZED IN PLACE OF
OPTIMUM GARBAGE REMOVAL SERVICES BADLY NEEDED BY OUR RESIDENTS.
With all due respect to our hardworking Officials, Our present
garbage contract appears to be more for the garbage companies'
needs than for the residents' . IN FACT SOME RESIDENTS COMPLAIN
THAT THEIR GARBAGE WAS NOT EVEN PICKED UP UNLESS THEY CALLED
THE GARBAGE COMPANY TO COME AND GET IT AND THEY DID COME AND
GET IT WITHIN 24 HOURS LIKE THE CONTRACT SAYS; BUT BARELY. We
contend that they have a good contract so why should they care?
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If the city had adaquate waste removal the residents ushand yardwaste,
feel forced to have to burn their cxa 9
which definately is an environmental problem and hazard that
poses a high risk to the resident. A couple of resident even
stated that they have to carry their trash out of town they
can get rid of it without going broke on extra bags or carts
of garbage.
Note: the present garbage contract is non-negotiable for the
City of Yorkville until June 30th of the year 2000 , but the
Garbage Company has a clause in the same contract that shows
a formula for raising the garbage bill rate on a yearly
until the year 2000 . Absorbing the garbage companies' yearly
cost rate for its' use of a landfill which is figured in our
costs is antiquated and not our problem especially since
recycling is a great part of our garbage
This formula just shows us that the garbage company made room
for themselves to make more mone but do not have to uarentee
the City of Yorkville that more sere will be given Lis that
exchange. We would like to ask our officials to g'
guarentee of more real needed garbage removal services in
addition to the "freebees that the garbage company is probably
getting paid for themselves, in the advertising we for tieing
to them for allowing them to use our city property
use." The garbage company is "making out like a bandit"in
our contract with them. Our city of Yorkville could turn the
tables easily at this opportune time, because of its' growing
need. It' s time for Yorkville to hold the garbage company
hostage and arran e with the com an for unlimited 1ar ba a icku
and to pick u� lawn waste weekl from niTto rent or lease
no extra char e. Also, some garbage comp
chippers during the brush disposal season, ask them for a rate
on that too. The doubt is very high that our present garbage
company service would hold a city up on a contract that does
not have a renegotiation clause for the company to make more
money. If this garbage company does not want to give us more
service even though they can raise our garbage bill a reasonable
amount, then it is up to our fine elected officials to put
this garbage company on notice that they are not ear 2000 comes
company who can take care of our needs when the
along. A garbage company that cares about the people they
p
serve should, out of good faith renegotiate a better deal at
the table when a customer is planning to increase the garbage
companies' business by asking for more and adaquate services
needed as the City grows. Yorkville should take this opportunity
to gain more leverage with our present garbage .
company.
Yorkville
c
needs to shop around for garbage company ate garbage
need to fulfill our residents extra needs for adaqu he ne
removal, then bring this estimate to tcompanytto give us table
when working with the presenttgarbage This is one wa aro und
service as described above,
the non-ne y ar
otiation clause until the e 2000 . And this action
on behalf the City of Yorkville will introduce COMPETITION
for our present garbage company service so they will have an
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incentive to give us more and better than adaquate waste removal
service for a reasonable price until the garbage contract expires
on June 30th of the year 2000 ; and if renegotiations with the
garbage company do not work out, then it would not bbe faandto
the residents to outlaw their burning of garbage,
yardwaste, when they have little means to dispose of it for
a reasonable price. So, if open burning is going to be allowed
so people can adaquately dispose of their extra garbage and
yard waste, then we suggest that Open Burning Ordinance 96-10
be strenthened to accommodate the safety needs of all the
residents.
A sample of a contract that provides all the clauses and services
above can be found in the Village of Justice, Illinois. It
is suggested that the City of Yorkville hold the garbage company
hostage with the competition of our interest in another garbage
company for our additional waste removal needs at this time
along with a sample of a Village of Justice garbage contract
as bargaining chips in picking up increased services from the
garbage company Yorkville presently has a contract with. The
garbage company on the Village of Justice contract may also
be able to refer our officials to other branches of their
companies out here in Kendall county. otherwise, the City
of Yorkville will have an inadaquate waste disposal system until
June 30th of the year 2000 . Since its proven that a garbage
company provides all the services, waste removal needs and fair
contract clauses ( included in the above discussion) for the
garbage contract for the village of Justice? Illinois at a very
low cost to the resident and since Justice has two times the
population of Yorkville, it certainly should be able to handle
the waste disposal needs of Yorkville residents , and offer
all the so called "free services" for the City Garbage pickups
and the free Port-0-lets service at the same time. That' s what' s
called a level playing field.
It is suggested that if the Garba a and Yardwaste disposal
services of The City of Yorkville arthent ge to
Burning date
for the growing needs of this city , -
Issue" will "burn on." --
`—
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SURVEY AND REPORT OF MOST FREQUENT RESPONSES OF 125 RESIDENTS
WHO LIVE SOUTH OF THE FOX RIVER IN YORKVILLE, ILL. ON THE ISSUE
OF THE OPEN BURNING ORDINANCE 96-10; A BASIS FOR CHANGE---
FROM THE RESIDENTS' PERSPECTIVE
Research, Survey and Report prepared and compiled by Nancy A.
James Registered Voter of The United City of Yorkville
July - August 1998
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INTRODUCTION TO REPORT
Part I- Survey which reveals residents of Yorkville confused
as to what kind of open burning can be done
Part II- Paraphrased Comments and Suggestions volunteered by
Yorkville residents that give reasons why City of Yorkville
needs to adopt a Fire Prevention Rules into Open Burning
ordinance 96-10 ; so there can be effective enforcement of Fire
Prevention to protect all residents
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PART I- SURVEY
LEAF-BURNING ORDINANCE INTERPRETATION CONFUSION BY COMMUNITY
IDENTIFIED BY ANSWERS FROM 125 RESIDENTS, (SOUTH OF THE FOX
RIVER) BASED ON ONE QUESTION ASKED
QUESTION:
"Are you for recreational campfire burning or against it?"
ANSWERS:
1 . "What is recreational burning?" (Several people answered this)
2. "Is there a difference between that type of burning and other
kinds of burning?" (Several people answered this way)
3. "Sure, I'm for burning leaves." (at least 50% of the people
gave this answer. )
4. "I am against burning being done by residents." (About 15%
of the people gave this answer." )
5. "I thought there was a leaf-burning ban in this city." (Note:
very few people gave this answer, i.e. , 2 elderly women
residents in seperate houses and 1 middle-aged woman." Also
note that the middle-aged woman mentioned that a paper had
been sent around to the residents that said that leaf-burning
was banned, and that other types of burning was allowed;
it told what kind of burning was allowed and how to do
it. )
6 . "Sure, I'm for burning leaves even though I know there is
a leaf-burning ban in this city, but so what everybody burns
their leaves anyway." (At least 40% of the people out of
the 50% that said they are for burning leaves and fires
gave this answer. )
7. "I am neutral on leaf-burning, it does not matter to me
one way or the other if someone wants to burn their leaves. "
(Note: most people referred to burning leaves as the type
of burning that they noted people doing, rarely did anybody
who was questioned use the word recreational burning in
their answers.")
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Part II- RESIDENT COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS:
COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS BY RESIDENTS AS A BASIS FOR YORKVILLE
OFFICIALS TO REVIEW THEIR NEEDS AND CONSIDER A WORKING AND
EFFECTIVE FIRE PREVENTION PROGRAM WITHIN THE UNITED CITY OF
YORKVILLE CITY LIMITS
RESIDENTS COMMENTS:
A. Anonymously, many residents stated that many people are
burning their campfires too close to either their garages,
houses, brush from nearby trees, decks and other structures.
In some instances the residents stated that there were fires
but that the fires were put out. Most of the residents did
not state how the fires were put out, but they did admit to
not reporting them because it was their neighbor who conducted
the fires, and they stated they did not want trouble from them.
Residents also complained that people were burning all kinds
of things late at site in their recreational campfire sites;
things such as garbage, leaves, brush and even the possibility
that some residents may be burning bio- medical waste, such
as plastic devices used for chronic medical care and syringes
with needles attached. Several residents also stated that they
have seen fires in the City of Yorkville with nobody attending
to them.
POTENTIAL RISK IDENTIFIED
1 . Unreporting of a potential fire or an actual fire poses
a severe threat to all the residents of Yorkville if it gets
out of hand. Non-attendance to a fire is also a high risk.
WHAT THE CURRENT ORDINANCE ON OPEN BURNING SAYS:
2. The current ordinance on Open Burning number 96-10 does
not state specifically how many feet from any structure an
open burning flame should be conducted, therefore without a
guideline many people can misjudge.
WHEN A RESIDENT TRIES TO REPORT A COMPLAINT
3. Even if a resident wants to report a fire hazard
complaint, the Police can look at it but Open Burning Ordinance
96-10, paragraph A2 does not contain wording which could enable
a Police Officer to enforce responsible campfire activities
by the resident who is conducting the fire, except for the
general wording of fires being conducted in such a manner so
as not to constitute a hazard or nuisance to persons or
property." So, the question of whether a fire is being safely
conducted is left open to the interpretation of all people
involved in the complaint, which causes friction between the
parties complaining of the hazard and the Police Officer.
Thus, if the Police Officer perceives there is no fire hazard
threat, this may cause what a resident feels is a real fire
hazard threat to continue, leaving the resident feeling unsafe
and frustrated.
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SUGGESTION FOR AN IMPROVED OPEN BURNING ORDINANCE:
4. It is suggested that the Open Burning Ordinance provide
the Yorkville Police Department the authority to enforce
responsible Open Burning by all residents anywhere within the
United City of Yorkville City limits, using specific guidelines
which are adopted into Open Burning Ordinance number 96-10 ,
so when a resident is engaging in irresponsible burning
activities the Officer can cite them specifically the section
within the ordinance that the resident is violating. Use of
sections already adopted by the City of Yorkville under the
auspices of the Building Department Code is suggested. The
code referred to here is the Federal BOCA Code for National
Fire Prevention the 1996 edition. It is suggested that a
combination of wording from the BOCA Code and needs based on
comments from the residents make up the rules or guidelines
by which an Officer will be given the authority to enforce
responsible campfire burning. One question is: "Why should
a Police Officer of Yorkville be the one to enforce Fire
Prevention Rules? Because residents who have an immeadiate
fire hazard complaint have nowhere to go to file a formal
complaint seek to immeadiately or shortly thereafter a remedy
it. For instance; One day a resident wanted to file a fire
hazard complaint with the Fire Department of Yorkville and a
Fire Department Volunteer stated that the resident would have
to leave a message on a telephone message machine to report
the complaint to the Fire Chief and the Fire Chief would be
back if he felt it was important. When the resident stated
that the fire hazard was of a neighbor who was shortly going
to have a recreational fire in an area where the complaintant
felt was too close to their garage, the Fire Department Volunteer
said he had no way to allow the resident to file a formal
complaint except to call and leave a message for the Fire Chief
because it was the weekend. The Volunteer then called a couple
of people to find out where the resident could report the fire
hazard complaint. The Volunteer Fireman finally found out that
the resident could file the complaint with the Building
Department of Yorkville during business hours the following
week. This to the resident appeared to be a very inefficient
system to be able to file a fire hazard that could possibly
happen later that nite. This also could cause severe friction
between neighbors which could cause even further problems.
The resident felt that calling 911 for an incident that did
not occur yet was not justified and calling the Police for
something that has not occurred yet was also unjustified, so
the fire hazard went unreported during that weekend. When the
resident finally was able to report the fire hazard to the
Building Department of the City of Yorkville, nobody was
available in the office, and since the Building person is known
to do a lot of field work during the day, the resident was
told the Building Inspector would possibly be in another day
and was given his office phone number. To sum it up, the
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resident wanted to fill out a formal fire hazard complaint
for that day, on paper, but the Fire Dept. nor the City was
available for that resident to do that. It is suggested that
no resident should have to go through all this to formally report
a fire hazard complaint to the City and then get no results
to remedy the matter in a reasonable and timely manner.
It has been suggested at the last Public Safety Committee Meeting
that a Zoning person maybe should be hired to take on the
responsibility of the fire prevention and fire hazard complaints
of residents. With all due respect, I am here to tell the
Committee that it will not work, and I use this residents'
example to show you that one or two Building Department
employees could never keep up with all the fire hazard complaints
from a population of over 6,000 people in addition to all the
other duties these employees have to perform in one day, whereas,
Police Officers who are already on the street 24 hours, can
better respond and within a reasonable amount of time
( depending on their workload) to those residents who are being
irresponsibly dangerous to other residents in their open burning
or recreational campfire burning activities, and residents will
know where they can file potential fire hazard complaints in
an efficient manner. Such a system could also be more cost
efficient for the City.
5. WHAT THE CURRENT OPEN BURNING ORDINANCE SAYS ABOUT
LEAFBURNING
Open Burning Ordinance 96-10 does not actually state
that leaf-burning within the United City of Yorkville City Limits
is prohibited, although it strongly acknowledges that the burning
of leaves and other materials is bad for your health. Chapter
I, section 4-1 -1 -A (which is currently in effect as referred
in the latest Ordinance of 96-10) states woodburning is
permitted during "daylite hours only" and section 4-1 -1-A-2
states that smoke from wood and leaves as provided above (when
leaves are not provided in the above statement) and further
state "are considered air pollution and a nuisance) ." At the
same time paragraph A2 of the amended Ordinance states that
almost anybody can burn a recreational fire, ( note: are not
recreational fires conducted with wood? and are not these
materials supposed to be burned during the daylite hours only?)
Conclusion: Ordinance 96-10 contradicts itself and thus causes
confusion in everyone who has to interpret it. Because of all
of the above it is requested that Ordinance 96-10 be reamended
to adopt correction, changes and or additions to meet the needs
of all the residents of Yorkville. It is suggested that
Ordinance 96-10 be clear and specific in its intent, and it
is also suggested that if open burning of any kind is permitted
that it be specific and clear in the form of rules and/or code
section regulations including the following:
1 . specifics on how the amount of smoke will be controlled
if 6000 residents will have the permission to burn. An effective
fool-proof ep rmit system that is recorded and followed by our
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• fine Police Dept. And determination of when the permits should
be allowed based on weather conditions and the advice of the
Forestry Dept_ outside the City of Yorkville.
2. The type of container ( specifically described ) that
can be used in open burning
3. Location_ The distance expressed in linear feet as to
how far from any structures a resident may conduct a campfire;
including the distance from nearby hanging tree branches, other
brush, houses, garages, decks, outbuildings and porches.
4. Time of dam What time of day is burning allowed and
how long burning can be done during one campfire session should
be stated.
S . Notification of your neighbors. A resident who is going
to burn should notify their nearest adjacent neighbors so they
can choose to close their windows while the burning is on, or
leave the city for the day. This is also courteous to those
who cannot physically tolerate smoke; such as those with chronic
illnesses and allergies.
6. Putting out the fire. It is the responsibility of a
resident conducting an open burn or a recreational campfire
to put a fire completely out when the event is over. By "out
" means that smoke no longer is seen coming from the campfire
site.
7 . Attendance to the campfire. A resident must be in
attendance to the campfire at all times until it is completely
out. Attending a campfire from a porch, a deck , a house or
any other outbuilding is not considered as attending to the
fire. specific number of linear feet away should be considered
as the accepted distance away for attending to an open burn
or a reacreational campfire.
8. prohibition of certain materials stated; it should
specifically state that burning of garbage, construction
materials and Bio-medical waste which includes plastic medical
devices and needles are a grave violation of this open burning
ordinance. And proper disposal of these items should be referred
to in the Yorkvilles City Code Book.
9 . Weather conditions: If the weather is 80° or above open
burning and or recreational burning will be prohibited. ( 800
was the average temperature that people said they could tolerate
closing their windows if there were a neighbor who was conducting
a campfire and they did not have central air-conditioning )
open burning is prohibited when the ozone is high and creates
difficulty for people with chronic illnesses and respiratory
illnesses to breathe. An open burn and/or recreational fire
is also prohibited if the weather has been so dry that most
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properties have burned-looking grass and brush from the heat
or if a watering ban has been declared by the City of Yorkville.
If the Forestry Dept. outside our city is prohibiting campfire
burning because of dry conditions, then open burning within
the city limits of Yorkville will also be prohibited or severely
limited.
10 . Enforcement. The Ordinance should include a clear
statement of Authority that a Police Officer of the City of
Yorkville may have. When a resident signs the permit to burn,
the permit should state that the resident understands the rules
of open burning and that the Police Dept. of the City of
Yorkville reserves the right to cite a resident in violation
of the open Burning Ordinance 96-10 and to be able accordingly
to extinguish the campfire, or if a resident complains the open
burning or recreational campfire is a nuisance to them the fire
may also be extinguished by the Police Officer. The Officer
should also be given the authority to extinguish a fire of a
resident who has not been given a permit to burn. And on the
second warning of anyone who violates the Open Burning Ordinance
they should receive a fine, with the fine to be doubled on each
subsequent offense.
11 . Definition of Recreational burning. A campfire to be
only used only for the cooking of food for human consumption.
Burning of other materials shall be in violation of the
definition of recreational burning.
12 . Definition of Open Burning
13 . Who can conduct burning? The age of the person and who
can burn is very important to include in the Ordinance because
some residents feel that their children should be allowed to
conduct campfires. As one resident said " My chidren can conduct
a campfire anytime they want and they can burn whatever they
want."
I would like to leave the Committee with the following advice
from a Mr. James Garner of the U.S. Dept. of Forestry who was
speaking to the U.S. House Resources subcommittee in Washington
D.C. on Aug. 8, 1998, in regards to the burning of fires. He
stated that "the burning of fires such as that of wood burning
in the forest in the Fall can be dangerous because the smoke
can invert from the cool air and tend to stay near the ground,
which is dangerous to breathe and can obstruct traffic on streets
which can cause severe accidents." He also stated that "the
first consideration in doing a controlled burn of an area of
property is to consider the weather conditions." I have been
told by a very reliable source that it is a fact that during
the Fall season last year several of our own Police Officers
were absent from their duty because of smoke related illnesses
after having patrolled our streets in the high volume of smoke
from people doing open and recreational burning. On the
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' residents' side, one resident told me he was coming home from
work one day and the smoke was so thick over one of our Yorkville
streets from people doing open and recreational burning, that
he had to stop driving because he could not see where he was
going; this area was very close to one of our Yorkville schools.
Do we want our Officers in less than top shape to be able to
protect our children and ourselves ? And do we want to increase
the risk of serious accidents to either ourselves or our children
because we cannot see where we are going?
Tonite before I leave, I will provide the Public Safety Committee
Members with my Preliminary Report and Survey of the annonymous
comments and suggestions of 125 residents on open burning in
Yorkville. This report contains many reasons why we feel Open
Burning Ordinance 96-10 should be reviewed by our officials
and re-amended to meet the needs of all the residents in
Yorkville with the adoption of Fire Prevention Rules beneath
paragraph A-2 . A first draft of this report has also been given
to our fine Police Chief Anton Graff on 8-19-98 at 2 :30 PM
for his perusal. I also would urge the Committee to seek his
opinion on some of the solutions for this ordinance; he has
some good ideas for lessening the number of people who would
be burning a recreational campfire in Yorkville at one time;
i.e. , a type of schedule or free permit system. ( which would
also be agreeable to those who presently complain of a lot of
smoke from campfires, especially during seasons where brush
and leaf disposal needs are high) . He also stated that he
would be consulting with our Building Dept. to find out what
the specifications would be for how the campfire site should
be contained. I would also urge the Committee to compare the
Federal Fire Prevention Code BOCA CODE ( as a guide, with the
comments and suggestion section of my reports to help customize
the rules, ( if you should choose to list them ) that could
be adopted into Ordinance 96-10 .
At the next C.O.W. Meeting I plan to speak about Recreational
Burning in Yorkville. At that time several responsible
recreational campfire burners of the City of Yorkville,- and
others interested in lowering campfire smoke emissions will
be petitioning our officials to help them carry on this tradition
in a cleaner environment. I would like to invite anyone who
is interested in preserving the tradition of responsible campfire
burning to come to the next C.O.W. meeting and represent your
views. This is the end of my report to the Public Safety
Committee of the City of Yorkville. I would like to thankyou
for allowing me to speak at your committee table; I am going
to leave a copy of my statement and would like to request that
it be attached to the record of the minutes for tonites' meeting.
Thankyou.
Nancy A. James
Resident of Yorkville
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