New London City Council keeps burning ban in place

BY KARYN SPORY

Mt. Pleasant News

NEW LONDON ? New London residents will not see any changes to the city?s open burning restricted ordinance following citizen appeals to amend the law and allow the burning of leaves and grass clippings during certain days.

Councilman Tom Davis broached the subject of amending the ordinance Tuesday during the city council?s regular meeting. Davis said several residents had approached him wondering if once or twice a month during the fall if they would be able to burn lawn clippings and dry leaves.

?A lot of elderly people can?t bag all of this stuff (lawn clippings and leaves), it?s very hard for them. But they can rake it and burn it,? said Davis. ?Most of these people are very responsible people. I think we ought to have a window between September and October or October and November where they can burn leaves on certain days and certain hours.?

Davis admitted he knew some people were against amending the ordinance, but he was in favor of letting responsible residents burn leaves during certain times.

The rest of the council and audience were not on the same page.

Councilman Kirk Miller said the burning restrictions were put into place because so many residents have breathing issues. ?We have got a bunch of people, myself included, that one whiff of smoke, man, my head is gone for two or three days. I think we need to think of them also,? he said.

?The reason we did this was not to benefit one or two people who have come to you and said ?hey, I want to (burn leaves) at this time?, it?s so other folks are safe,? said Dan Berner, council member.

Resident Ron Osborn asked the council what was the point of putting the burning restrictions in place if they were going to allow burning on certain days. ?The intent of the ordinance was to eliminate all of this,? he said, waving his hands around.

As for Davis? suggestion that many elderly residents have trouble bagging the lawn debris, resident Linda Smith suggested calling the school and see who was in detention. ?They?ll come help,? she said.

During open forum Smith said she had attended a lot of city council meetings to get the burn ban in place, and she would hate to see it lifted for two or three months out of the year.

?I?m going to paint this with a pretty wide brush, but there?s a lot of people who don?t know how to burn,? she said. ?They don?t burn the right things and I don?t think we have the police force to enforce it because we didn?t have it before.?

The open burning restricted ordinance was upheld.

The council heard from many members of the public during open forum Tuesday night. Two representatives from the Dover Museum addressed the council. Caroline Leman asked the council to consider adding the Dover Museum to the city?s website. Gale Riley said she was concerned with the number of youths hanging around the museum and depot past curfew. Riley also spoke to the council about changing the city?s slogan from ?The City of Redbuds? back to ?Gateway to Geode.? ?We have got so many things (with) geodes; we have Geode State Park that has been here for a long time where redbuds are kind of gone.?

Smith piggybacked on Riley?s statements. ?We have a state park less than 10 miles away from us. People come here looking for geodes, they don?t come looking for redbuds,? she said. ?We have so much geode history?my grandfather helped create Geode State Park.?

During the meeting, the council decided to reduce the speed limit on East Main Street. From the old Casey?s into town, the speed limit will be reduced to 25 miles per hour. At McKinley Street, the speed limit will be 45.

As for developing the five residential lots on West Adams Street, the council agreed to plot out the lots.

In other business, the council:

? Approved temporarily closing the public right of way for the New London Car Cruise on Oct. 22.

? Approved hiring Brian Kleinkopf as a full-time public works employee. Kleinkopf will earn $17.75 per hour.

? Authorized sponsoring the annual Holiday Stroll and the annual $500 donation.

? Approved a four-year cooperative agreement for the Southeast Iowa Ridge Blaster Inc. snowmobile club to perform trail work in the street right of way.

The next meeting of the New London City Council will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2016, at 6 p.m., in the City Office.