Zoning affects us all

Zoning affects us all

We found out the other night what happens when a public hearing is scheduled and no one conies. Not much.

Actually one town resident did show up at Monday night’s hearing on proposed changes to the town zoning ordinance. After listening to his concerns, members of the town planning commission discussed the matter and decided to make a change. That is the kind of give and take that makes public hearings so important.

Most zoning ordinances are duller than the phone book and significantly harder to read. Yet they are vitally important to every resident and land owner in the community. The proposed changes to the town’s ordinance will be sent on to the Town Council, which will schedule another public hearing, giving the residents a second chance to ask questions and offer suggestions.

If they don’t ask questions now they will stumble over the regulations later.

Headache remedy

A recurring problem for area farmers is caused by herbicide and pesticide residues. In concentrated form many of them are toxic. Often the rules change rendering a chemical unusable this year that was considered safe the year before.

Alar is one example. Before the scare a couple of years ago it was commonly used to keep Macintosh apples from splitting as they ripened. Now it is banned and farmers with left over Alar are stuck with the stuff. (They are also stuck with Macintosh apples that are difficult to market, but that is a different problem.)

The chemicals pile up in storage sheds, chained in by the ever-changing regulations. It is a growing headache for farmers. Now the Extension Service is offering a remedy. A program has been set up to collect unwanted and unusable farm chemicals. There is only one catch: farmers must sign up before June 1.

Every farmer in the county should take a look in his storage shed this week. If he (or she) finds unwanted or illegal chemicals, the next step is to call Scott Cunningham, the county’s Extension Agent.

There is no cost for the service. Privacy is assured and no one is going to call the environmental cops. The chemicals will be marked, collected, and carried off for proper disposal.

This is a chance to move gallons of toxic chemicals out of the county so our children will not be stuck with a headache of their own years from now. We should take advantage of it.