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Council again denies landfill wood permit
Published 11:48am Tuesday, November 6, 2012Despite sharply worded comments from community members in favor of a new policy, the city council once again voted against Jay McDougall’s request to establish a permit policy to allow salvaging at the landfill, five votes to three.
McDougall is a wood artist, and when he started his business in Fergus Falls, he routinely took wood from the landfill without incident. Several years ago, however, he was asked to discontinue taking wood from the area. Concerns were raised about safety, insurance, extra work for landfill employees and fairness among others who might want to take things from the landfill.
McDougall asked the council to establish a specific system that would allow wood artists to purchase a permit that would allow them to take wood from the landfill for art purposes.
“This is a big deal,” McDougal said. “It’s my business. It’s my livelihood. It’s one of the reasons I live here, and it’s one of the reasons I do business here.”
The request offered a fail-safe, so that at any time, the public works director could terminate the permit system.
After opinions from both sides of the issue were heard from council members, community member Denise Mower addressed the board.
“Once again, I stand before you in disbelief that we as a community cannot operate in a way that is welcoming to people and business,” she said. “I just don’t get it.”
Like McDougall and some of the council members, Mower said she believed this was a business opportunity that city leaders should be supporting.
“We’re once again at the city level with regulations,” she said. “It’s like the government wants to regulate regulate regulate. Can’t you just give it a try and see what happens?”
For liability reasons I thing the city needs to keep saying no. With everyone so ready to sue if something happens to them, we need to keep everyone out of the woodpile.
Oh, of course you do, PAM. Of course you do.
We should also keep the child-minded away from the adult conversations… fundamentally speaking, but that’s a separate issue.
The dingleberries who are stifling Mr. McD are so backward in their thinking… some might call it dereliction of duty.
“Should we set up a method for a local artist to work locally and reuse locally discarded wood?”
Moron response?
“No… no… no… we shouldn’t do that. But we should get excited in our pants because we have Wal*Mart! Yeah! Let’s go load up the credit cards with some cheap made-in-China garbage we don’t need and can’t afford!!!”
im sorry this is completely STUPID AND ABSOLUTELY RETARDED! in a way shows exactly who we have running the council. im sorry if truth hurts but SERIOUSLY? something so minor and dumb as this?
WHAT WILL IT HURT LETTING THE GENTLEMEN GO AT HIS OWN RISK and remove the wood that he may need? one he is putting it to excellent use creating work of art out of this. i personally see no reason or risk as to why he should not be allowed to do it.
this is just one of the MANY MANY issues i have SEVERE problems with in this city right now…
Welcome to Fergus Falls. In any other city/town this wouldn’t be an issue, the guy would sign a waiver absolving the city and it’s employees. But this is Fergus Falls, where we look for problems that don’t exist and ignore those that do.
Imagine that!! Pam has a comment for EVERYTHING!! Nothing better to do but keep ur nose in others business?? This town doesnt care about the residents or businesses obviously!! Mr.McD is using wood from the landfill for his business and the city wants to take that from him? What about the time it takes this man to get the wood out and ready to carve? He is trying to make a living and has done GREAT til the city says NO!!! We would rather waste things than let residents use them to make a living!!! RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!
What a load of crap. If the lawyer(s) in bed w/ the city council are so worried about this why is there not a reasonable way to have him sign a damage and injury waiver clearing the city of any liability if he gets hurt or any of his equipment is damaged while on city property. I would suggest that if anyone has trees taken down, they call this gentleman and donate their trees to him to use. Support Mr. McDougall and tell the city to shove it.
Perhaps you have the germ of a solution to this quandry. Suggest to McD that he contact local tree removal firms, ask them to notify him of their planned removals. Then, McD looks over the tree(s) planned for removal, selects those he wants to keep, and shows up on the site when the mighty wood cutters are grinding away and hauls away the choice cuts before the cuts are hauled to the dump.
City is left out of the loop, and McD gets his raw materials.