Editor’s note: this letter is in response to a letter published on January 12.
To the editor:
Michael Coppock’s questions and complaints about the Leaf Blower Study Group’s activities answer themselves, by and large. He notes the cost of the flyers mentioned in his letter (January 12, 2016) came from the Selectmen’s printing budget. Simply put, this expenditure, authorized by elected officials and/or persons appointed by them, reflected the interest of the town’s governing bodies in a subject that addresses both quality of life and health issues affecting Lincoln residents. The extent to which leaf-blower emissions and noise are seen as a public health problem is reflected by the existence of hundreds of local laws, ordinances and regulations regarding use of these machines in counties, cities, towns, and villages across the land and around the world. To be sure, these measures have proved difficult to enforce, for a number of reasons—but that does not diminish the public’s interest or the nature of the problem or the Board of Health’s responsibility to address it.
In Lincoln, the outcome of a two-years-plus deliberative process (which included the flyers) was consensus that a town-wide bylaw was not appropriate at this time, but that the problem in the Town Center was sufficient to win agreement by important property owners to alter practices.The fact that this consensus involved representatives of two town departments, the Board of Health, and discussion by the Town Meeting itself, further underscores that the topic was hardly limited to a single advocate or advocacy group. Further, the town-appointed Conservation Commission, by creation of a subcommittee to succeed the LBSG, concurs that the health and quality-of-life issues surrounding use of these machines is of public interest and concern.
In addition to educating, our strategy is to call attention to alternate methods of landscape maintenance that are clean, quiet, sustainable, and healthy—ranging from “doing nothing” and leaving leaves and grass clippings to turn naturally into mulch, to use of quieter and less-polluting tools and machines. Apart from the distress of residents in certain neighborhoods, we are also concerned with the hazards faced by operators of petroleum-powered landscaping machinery—especially because these machines emit known carcinogens and toxic pollutants through exhaust vents located within three or four feet of the users’ noses.
These goals are shared widely. From Massachusetts to California, they are shared by colleges, public agencies and parks, and commercial business properties, as well as individual property owners, who are taking action. Voluntary public process, often involving governments, has proved to be the key to achieving these results. The outcomes vary, but in the end are meant for the good of all.
Sincerely,
Jamie Banks
Leaf Blower Study Group
Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Letters must be about a Lincoln-specific topic, will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Letters containing personal attacks, errors of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published.