Things got heated at a public consultation on restricting the use of wood-burning stoves in the town of Baie d’Urfe as about 30 residents heard the town’s proposal to regulate wood burning stoves.
The city is recommending that homeowners replace their wood stoves with environmentally friendly ones within the next five years.
City officials argued wood burning pollutes the air and is bad for people’s health.
Residents who attended the meeting say replacing their wood stoves would be too expensive and not practical.
“If the town is interested in clean air, they shouldn’t be just picking on this small issue with wood stoves,” David Marlowe said.
READ MORE: City to put restrictions on wood burning appliances
“I’m plagued all summer by leaf blowers and the dust they are raising. And the town’s chipper that goes around with this horribly out-of-tune diesel engine. Once a week I have to run around and close the windows in the house because I get gassed out of the house from Diesel fumes.”
“I was able to get some quotes as to what this expense would be, and it was up to $7,000 to put a new fireplace insert that would be compliant with the regulations that are being proposed this evening,” Justin Mitchell, a 15-year resident of Baie d’Urfe said.
Mitchell would like to see a longer period to have the stoves phased out.
The meeting was a first for the town. Decisions are usually discussed within council then approved without consultation.
“Because we knew this would be very controversial, maybe split the town on an opinion, we wanted to hear our citizens said before council actually sits down to talk about it,” mayor Maria Tutino said before the meeting started.
Council members say they’ll consider and discuss the feedback they received.
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