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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. - t - rc:TT 86/0Z/60 zoo[n 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. -2- %v3 VC:TT 96/09/60 0000 • 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. -3- Xv3 VC:TT 86/OZ/60 V00 In • 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 -4- %v3 rc:TT 96/OZ/60 9000 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 Iva re:11 96/OZ/60 9000 . 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? L00 z %va rc:TT 86/OZ/60 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 XV3 rc:TT 96/OZ/60 goo[n 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." -- `— 0 I ��i�; ;rur7�c� c�,►Jf�r�� �J�71� .�Lc��or's' FoR ����0 Fe /40 f.)a, � XV3 rc:TT 86/OZ/60 600(M 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 XV3 rc:TT 86/OZ/60 OTO2 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 TTO121 YV3 rC=TT 86/OZ/60 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.") ZTO�j X�3 rc=TT 86/OZ/60 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. CTOC�j XVA 6C:TT 86/OZ/60 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 XVa rC=TT 96/OZ/60 VTOO 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 RV3 VC:TT 96/OZ/60 STOIn • 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 8TO[j M 6C:TT 86/OZ/60 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 LTO 2 %V3 6C:TT 96/OZ/60 ' 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 8T0 12] %V3 VC:TT 86/OZ/60