Clayton

ing season which runs from Oct. 1 to April 30, if they’re not prohibited by local ordinances or the Georgia Forestry Commission. There is a year-round burning ban on household garbage.

Clayton residents have been fighting over their local ban since October when — bowing to health concerns — Clayton officials killed outdoor burning altogether save for grills and residential fire pits. The permanent ban ignited a bitter disagreements that led to name-calling at recent commission meetings.

It also forced commissioners to seek a compromise that still does not sit well with those who oppose the ban.

“It’s unfair,” Jerry Garber of Morrow told commissioners. “... and during the months burning is allowed, there is a significant number of days that burning not allowed due to unfairable weather conditions. If you restrict weekend burning that further decreases the days we’re allowed to burn.”

But supporters of the ban said it boils down to health.

Claudia De Guzman recently told commissioners that fumes from outdoor burning get in her lungs and feel like “an elephant standing on my chest. I get panic attacks.” Her husband, Peter, noted that Georgia has about 260,000 children and 500,000 adults with respiratory problems.

“Change is hard and people naturally resist it,” Peter De Guzman said, recalling early resistance to seat belts and smoking bans. “Clayton has the opportunity to be first in what is bound to be a state-mandated burn ban. Please make the burn ban permanent.”

Commissioner Felecia Franklin-Warner noted that other southside counties — Fayette, Coweta and Henry — do not have burn bans nor do they limit burning periods.

“I don’t think we have substantive information to take away a person’s right to burn,” she said.

With two months left to burn before a statewide ban takes effect, opponents to Clayton’s ban implored commissioners to rethink their position on weekday burnings only. They asked officials to adhere to the state law but commissioners held fast to their decision voting 3-2. Franklin-Warner and Chairman Jeff Turner voted against.

In addition to the weekday-only burning, residents with medical conditions can get an exemption that would prevent burning within a quarter-mile radius of their home.

The ban was initiated by Commissioner Michael Edmondson who responded at a recent board meeting to the repeated outcry against the ban.

“I don’t think it’s reasonable for someone to be able to burn seven days a week and my children have to breathe smoke,” Edmondson said. “What’s the balance? They can burn five days and my children can play two days (without smoke). I think that’s a reasonable balance. That came from me and that’s why it exists.”

Edmondson did not return calls for this article.

CONTRIBUTED Dustin Bishop and Kevin Manning (with the waterhose) burn yard debris at the home of Ed Stephens in unincorporated Clayton County. Stephens hired the two men for the task because outdoor burning is only allowed on weekdays when Stephens is working.