The Great Fire Pit Hoax of 2016 . Or, at least it seems that way from last Thursday’s City Council meeting. OK, 2 years ago when I was Ward 3 City Councilor one of the first concerns that I acted on was a concern about people having camp fires in or near the woods at Whitney Park. I contacted the fire chief regarding my concerns that a fire in the woods could easily spread to the homes abutting the park. I came up with the idea of having Parks and Rec., put in those cement fire/cooking places, as in State Parks. I discovered that it is illegal for any open fires in the City. We could only have seasonal burning with a permit from the police dept. OK, like many places people assume that things like that are perfectly legal when they are not. But, if you read the Police Log in the paper, there are several reports of police and fire depts. called to a home per a complaint of an open fire. After all we have forever had back yard cook outs. I then discovered that there were commissions working on an ordinance to make them legal. The Fire Commission and others agreed that those calls wasted time and resources and many people had fire pits, etc., in their backyards. After legal, and others, came up with the wording for an ordinance I proposed an ordinance change before the Council. OK, this year that proposal finally was approved, but it was recommended that they be 50 feet from a dwelling. A sub-committee has since revised it to 15-20 feet as I pointed out, 50 feet from your home would mean having the fire in your neighbor’s yard.
Someone circulated flyers saying that the Council was to make it illegal to have fire pits, or with a 50 feet distance, or you could not use them. THE COUNCIL DID NO SUCH THING . IT WAS ILLEGAL, BUT PEOPLE DID NOT KNOW IT. THE COUNCIL MADE AN OPEN FIRE LEGAL. Yes, the 50- foot measure was included, now they have rectified it to 15-20 out of public safety. But, now you can have a fire without your neighbor filing a complaint.
Why someone would rile up the people of Westfield like this is beyond me. Is it no wonder people don’t trust their government, and we have such poor voter turnout when lies are circulated to discredit, create mistrust, so voting and being involved seems to be a futile waste of time.
The paper carried a front page piece regarding this, when the man and his son who spoke left, I met them in the hall to clarify. They thanked me and said he did not know it had been illegal. But, I thank him, and especially for bringing his son, as a responsible citizen who cares. Sorry for the confusion, Brian Hoose, [email protected]
