How Do Other Communities Deal With Outdoor Wood Furnaces?

IRONWOOD, MI - Sunday, December 21, 2008 - Just days after the Ironwood City Commission ruled to reconsider the City's new outdoor wood furnace ordinance, on of our top photographers spotted this truckload full of the units across from Family Video on Cloverland Drive in Ironwood.  (SEE PHOTO to the LEFT)

The Chronicle contacted the manufacturer of the company, they said that sales locally have been on the rise. They told the Chronicle that they were fully aware of the newly proposed stack height ordinance in Ironwood, and they were about to begin shipment of the new "higher stacks," but have put the shipment on hold until there is a final decision made as to the acceptable stack heights.

A spokesperson for the company said, "We are ready and willing to do whatever it takes to sell our units in the Ironwood area. If it takes increased stack heights on units, that's what we'll have to do." The spokesman emailed the photo on the right showing a new stack loaded on one of their company trucks, ready for delivery. "As you can see in the photo," the company rep said, "Our new exhaust flue will easily meet the City's newly proposed stack height requirements should they pass."

"Other communities have initiated new stack height requirements on outdoor wood furnaces," the company spokesman continued as he described a second photo he emailed to the Chronicle, "As you can see Wittleburg, Wisconsin voted to greatly increase the stack heights on newly installed outdoor wood burners. Since the new ordinance has passed, our company has installed dozens of new stacks throughout the City of Wittleburg. The neighbors love the improvement to the air quality, but have complained that the shadows created by the new stacks have pretty much eliminated any chance of seeing the sun."

Wittleburg Mayor Bud Freely said, "A lot of people in our city burn wood to heat their homes. We're a farming community, you know. Our city council fought long and hard to get this new ordinance passed. Neighbors were constantly complaining about the smoke and soot that was pouring out of the shorter stacks. Now they quit complaining about that. The only complain we here now is that there isn't enough sunlight for people to grow their crops. It's a small price to pay. Our city is becoming a real draw for tourists. We're like the modern equivilent of Stonehenge. People come from all over to see the dozens of oversized smokestacks."

Wittleburg neighbor Jennifer Buttlesgarden told the Chronicle, "It's so nice not having those horrible short chimneys. That smoke was pewy. Are you serious? Yuck! I mean who really wants to be around all that smoke? It's not healthy! How rude people are! Don't they have any consideration for anybody? I mean, they act like they can do anything they want and they have no consideration for anybody around them! Well, I would like to tell you more, but I have to run off to the liquor store and get a carton of smokes."