That was awful nice of the Lake County Health Department to offer "good neighbor" etiquette for leaf burners which appeard in the paper over the weekend. Here's a better idea on how to be a good neighbor: Ban leaf burning in unincorporated Lake County.
While nearly every municipality has banned leaf burning and gone to collecting them, then turning them to compost, Lake County officials cling to this old-fashioned, country-bumpkin ideal of letting residents send leaves up in smoke. Which probably runs counter to the Health Department's creed, but who's counting when the County Board holds the purse strings, right?
Did The Hound mention that most unincorporated areas border incorporated areas so, like other forms of pollution, leaf smoke doesn't stop at the limits of corporate entities? Like Beach Park, which still thinks its unincorporated, even though it is a village.
In Beach Park, they seem to burn seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. The Hound feels sorry for kids in Beach Park with asthma this time of year. Beach Park has this antiquated view of things, unlike Zion, Waukegan, Winthrop Harbor and North Chicago which all have controlled or no burning at all. Some great environmentalists there in Beach Park.
But the same can be said of Health Department folks who were quick to jump on the anti-smoking bandwagon, but not so quick to do the same for leaf burning. Guess the county hasn't heard of second-hand smoke. Instead, they want us all to be good neighbors. That policy goes up in smoke when the leaves fall.
