Westport officials debate over proposed leaf blower ordinance
WESTPORT — A proposed ordinance surrounding the change of when and what kind of leaf blowers residents and town employees are able to use has been a source of much debate as of late.
Director of Public Works, Peter Ratkiewich, said DPW strives to maintain the infrastructure throughout the year and while the department is not opposed to using electric powered tools the ordinance as written, is not “well-grounded” in the realities of municipal maintenance work,
“On review of the proposed leaf blower Ordinance, it appears that it will adversely affect, and in some cases flat out prevent our ability to maintain our infrastructure,” Ratkiewich said. “It is written without regard to the extent of our operations or even what our operations entail.
He said as written, it will make the DPW operations impossible to execute without violating the ordinance.
“For us to do our work all town operations would have to be exempt from the Ordinance,” he said.
The ordinance proposes that no more than one leaf blower can be used at the same time on any site less than two acres, no gas-powered leaf blower can be used on any state or federal holiday and no leaf blower of any kind can be used before 9 a.m. or after 5 p.m.
The goal of the ordinance is to reduced pollution and noise.
RTM member and creator of the ordinance, Kristin Schneeman, said they are not proposing to place a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers, however the core of the ordinance is to place seasonal restrictions.
“We are not asking anyone to ditch gas blowers and purchase all electric blowers,” Schneeman said. “Gas blowers would be allowed for spring and fall cleanup and electric blowers would be allowed year round.”
“One message I heard loud and clear in both memos is that we should exempt the town from the provisions of the ordinance and while that may be the approach in other states and other communities, I personally don't see how we can do something that the town isn't willing to do itself and isn't leading on,” she added.
Jennifer A Fava. Director of Parks and Recreation, also took issue with the ordinance saying that the ordinance does not benefit her department.
“The proposed ordinance is not well thought out as it relates to real world operations, is short sighted and sets unrealistic parameters that will inhibit our teams ability to complete their daily tasks,” Fava said in a letter to the RTM.
Fava added that the non-gas powered technology is inferior to the traditional gas powered leaf blowers. She said that the pushing forces is greatly reduced and has a shorter run time.
Ratkiewich agreed. He said the ordinance is written as if the two are equivalent in capabilities, cost to operate a fleet and the logistics of refueling.
Ratkiewich said “they are not.”
The DPW director also believes that the restriction would impact their normal duties of sidewalk cleaning, parking lot cleaning, storm cleanup and street sweeping.
He said street sweeping depends on the time of the year and the weather. He said in the month of March some years they begin their street sweeping however, other years they are still plowing snow. The also work generally begins at 5 or 6 a.m. so that they are not jeopardizing the safety of the public that use the sidewalks.
“It does make noise, but it happens once a year,” Ratkiewich said.
Currently according to the Town’s current Noise Ordinance, construction work may start at 7:00 AM and continue until 8:00 PM.
In response to only using one blower per acre, Ratkiewich said it begs the question “Is it better to have three leaf blowers operating for 15 minutes, or one for an hour and a half?”
“The restrictions in the existing Noise Ordinance make sense from an operational standpoint,” Ratkiewich said. “The proposed GLB Ordinance should be consistent with the hours of the existing Noise Ordinance. Town forces and operations should be exempt from these time restrictions, just as we are currently exempt from the Noise Ordinance, otherwise we cannot complete the work that we are required to do.”
He added that the time restrictions in the proposed ordinance are “unrealistic.”
“The crew restrictions make no sense from an operational standpoint and make every operation that requires a blower completely inefficient,” Ratkiewich said.
In the essence of enforcement of the potential ordinance, Police Chief Foti Koskinas said while he doesn’t oppose the ordinance itself, it presents a bigger problem when it comes to enforcing.
He said the enforcing of the ordinance points to a larger issue. which could become “tricky.”
“I don’t want to make this a race issue. I don’t want somebody to take my comments out of context, but a lot of our landscapers and the staff that works is undocumented and it creates a serious issue with the police interacts with them,” Koskinas said.
He said it creates a bigger issue when they don’t have identification. The police department has to make a custodial arrests until someone can identify who they are. He said as far as the ordinance itself, the police would need documentation on what type of blower was being used in order to enforce it.