It’s not just that the smoke gets in her eyes, although that’s a problem, according to Leflore County resident Joann Brownlow.
“We can’t breathe the good clean air out there,” Brownlow told the Board of Supervisors Monday. She said the air in District 5 is regularly being polluted by people burning not only leaves and yard trash but other types of materials containing chemicals, such as roofing.
Brownlow, who said she has asthma, particularly spoke about areas near her residence on Virden Drive and other property east of Humphrey Highway. She said she saw “like six fires burning this weekend.”
When members of the board suggested she contact the Sheriff’s Department or County Fire Coordinator Bobby Norwood, she said she had done both to no avail. Brownlow reported that the Sheriff’s Department informed her that since there was no state-issued burn ban, which is used to prevent wildfires during dry weather, it had no authority to have the fires extinguished.
She said Norwood sent an assistant to speak with her.
Meanwhile, she said smoke hovers over her house and gets inside it.
Board Attorney Joyce Chiles suggested that burning piles of debris might legally be considered a nuisance.
District 3 Supervisor Anjuan Brown asked, “Do we have a burn ordinance?”
District 1 Supervisor Sam Abraham answered, “It’s a state law that deals with burning.”
The board authorized Chiles to investigate the issue and scheduled a discussion with Norwood and Chiles before the board when it meets again on Monday.
In a similar matter, the board instructed the county’s ordinance officer, Perell Westbrook, to give owners of property with junk cars and other trash a specific deadline for taking action to clean and clear their property. Kaaron Rice Whiteside, who lives in Chicago, was among those who were sent a certified letter demanding that she either clear her property at 420 Rising Sun Circle or appear before the board Monday.
Westbrook said she instead asked over the telephone to be given until Nov. 26. The board backed its president, Wayne Self, when he told Westbrook she had until Nov. 25.
Darryl Fluker, who also was sent a certified letter, did not appear before the board, although Westbrook reported that Fluker had said he would begin to clean up his two lots in Rising Sun subdivision — one on Star Street and another on Boyd Circle — last week.
Westbrook reported that no action had been taken when he drove by Monday morning. Fluker has until the end of this week to get started, the board decided.
In other business, the board approved the purchase of $2,800 in new lighting for the Solid Waste Department’s shop and accepted the county’s current inventory list and its list of obsolete equipment. At Chiles’ suggestion, the obsolete equipment was deemed surplus so it can be sold at auction.
• Contact Susan Montgomery at 581-7233 or smontgomery@gwcommonwealth.com.
