In the October 7th letters, an author who lives outside of Hamilton wrote “DeHaan was the chairman of the Health Board as I described a lethal combination of toxic smoke and proximity of fire hazard [from a neighboring business].”

In 2006 as one of 5 members of the Health Board (I am not the chairman) we looked into an issue of a person setting up a salvage business in a residential neighborhood next to the author. They were rebuilding and recycling wooden pallets in significant numbers. The business was burning treated wood waste for a time, until the Health Department made them stop. It is illegal to burn treated wood, which is toxic, at any time or any place.

Once they stopped burning, the recycling business was not breaking any laws. Yes they were unsightly and noisy, and I cannot deny that the stacks of wooden pallets could have caught fire as could any other wood stack.

The main point however, is that the business was doing nothing against the law after the burning stopped. This is a perfect example of why some modest zoning controls make sense for the residential areas of our county, to keep incompatible uses apart.

We need a place for salvage type operations, just not in a residential neighborhood. Without reasonable County zoning, our local government is powerless to help people like this author, who are being negatively impacted and likely losing property value.

Roger De Haan
Candidate for County Commissioner Victor

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