I fell asleep last night watching the Elmbrook budget presentation on TV. From what I can tell, the district isn’t “cutting” anything - they’re juggling money and calling it cuts. Also, there’s over $1 million going into (on purpose, as in tax and stash) the district’s general fund. The fund will stand at over $20 million. The percentage to operating is now at 21%! The district goals state it needs to be at least 15%.
Here’s the kicker, Borch (Finance guy) said he’s sure some of that money will go to solve the HVAC problem at Pilgrim Park. Yep, AC means air conditioning. So, I’m going to revise my estimate. Gibson will ask for money for gyms for Tonawanda and Hillside. He’s also going to get every remaining school air conditioned before he leaves our wallets alone.
Air Conditioning! In a community that still allows open burning of lawn waste!
Hug your wallet goodbye. It looks like they want it all.
9 responses so far ↓
1 Dan Harland // Apr 11, 2008 at 9:49 am
How are AC and Lawn Waste tied? Unless you are implying that burning leaves not only causes respiratory illness but also leads to hotter September days.
2 Cindy Kilkenny // Apr 11, 2008 at 10:14 am
Burning causes respiratory distress; the a/c in schools is argued as a NEED because some students have respiratory problems related to the stuff in the air.
Better?
3 Dan Harland // Apr 11, 2008 at 12:14 pm
I disagree. A/C season is arguably at least one month before leaf burning season. I believe the two are unrelated. If you read the leaf burning studies, they mostly focus on people with chronic exposure to burning biomass. “Burning yard waste is allowed in Brookfield on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. when the wind velocity does not exceed 15 mph.” (City of Brookfield Ordinance). Two school days a week hardly counts as chronic exposure. I believe the wind velocity clause is in there to avoid unnecessary spreading of smoke clouds into buildings (like schools).
4 Cindy Kilkenny // Apr 11, 2008 at 1:28 pm
I want to live in your sheltered world, Dan.
Brookfield doesn’t enforce the ordinance. Burning can happen any day. Wind? Hah! I’ve seen flames at 40 mph. If you call no one responds. Plus if you call, your neighbors get hateful that you’ve stepped on their “right” to burn.
5 Al Goreleone // Apr 11, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Brookfield may have been semi-rural at one time but it more like semi-urban now. The inconvenient truth is burning is bad for the environment and the respiratory system.
6 Cheri M. // Apr 11, 2008 at 2:52 pm
People DO burning everything and anything… at any time, often unattedned. We’ve had some fire smolder in our neighborhood for 3 days… that IS chronic exposure.
They burn in the summer, spring, winter and fall… about the rules they care NOT AT ALL.
7 Shawn Matson // Apr 11, 2008 at 3:30 pm
We are a city of over 50,000. If you want to burn, go to the countryside. Compost your leaves and recycle your garbage. That’s my opinion.
8 BrkfldDad // Apr 11, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Okay, confessed burner here, especially on those Boy Scout campouts! It’s funny, both my wife and son have chronic asthma, but love to burn, doesn’t bother them at all. I agree it can become obnoxious, especially of the fuel is not dry. I wonder where the biological aversion came from. Not too long ago, everyone burned every day (there’s was no electricity to cook) and forest fires raged uncontrolled blanketing entire states with ash and smoke until they snuffed themselves out. I still think controlled burning is okay, problem is it’s not controlled at all. When we first moved here we didn’t know about the restrictions and within about 15 minutes of burning on a Wednesday a Brookfield cop was in our driveway, so they must respond to at least some calls! And, Dan, I think the velocity clause is to prevent fires from just waltzing their way to another source of tinder, and has nothing to do with the clouds of smoke. In fact, I think the higher speed winds tend to dissipate the clouds faster. But, one nice tinder taking flight could cause problems, just ask Dave Marcello. Oh no, wait, he lit that pile on purpose!
9 Dan Harland // Apr 11, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Ha, well coordinated zing on Marcello, I like it. My father is a specialist in pulmonary medicine and loves to be outside during the fall and burn refuse from our yard. He also has asthma - fortunately its well controlled.
I believe you can easily subvert the ordinance by burning in a closed fire-pit. I suppose all of those campfire cooked hot dogs with loaded with Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons, but hey, Im still livin…
The fact of the matter is that the leaf burning argument is out of context with the AC push in schools. When you go the entire summer without using Air Conditioning, I will stop burning biomass.
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