This guy in FL has been warned by the county BBQ monitor to keep his smoke and smells on his own property. I didn't know the office even existed.
Florida county tells resident to keep barbecue smoke in his own yard Published July 27, 2015FoxNews.com A viral video that shows a Florida man receiving a warning for allowing the smell of barbecue to waft off his property has some smoking mad.
Scotty Jordan uploaded a video on July 22 to Facebook that he says shows Pinellas County environmental specialist Joe Graham issuing a warning to Jordan and a friend for violating the country’s air quality law. The video, which has been watched over four million times, shows Graham telling Jordan that there's too much smoke emanating from Jordan's commercial-grade grill.
“I just took three pictures of smoke,” Graham explains. “I can smell it again right now. You’re allowed to have it smell on your property, so that doesn’t count, but when I’m on the street, that’s when it counts.”
Jordan can be heard laughing in the video as the specialist continues to explain the problem.
“Is that against the law?” one of the man questions.
Graham proceeds to pull out his handbook and informs the men that neighbors are allowed to call in if they have concerns about barbecue smoke. Pinellas County has a 24 hour hotline for residents to call in an emergency air quality complaint.
According to the ordinance, “commercial barbecue cookers are not exempt from causing a nuisance odor. If a sufficient number of complaints, representing different households, are reported and an Inspector witnesses the problem, they can issue a Warning Letter.”
The two men continue to laugh in disbelief and explain that other neighbors routinely cook out but no one appears to issuing warnings to them.
“So everyone in the whole world can cook out except me," Jordan can he heard saying.
Graham also says that in order to avoid a warning, the men should first check wind patterns before starting to barbecue—or upgrade their equipment to a newer model designed to curtail smoke and odors.
Graham's friend, who videoed the entire scene says, "We can't control the wind, God does that."
In an email obtained by Florida Politics, Pinellas County Administrator Mark Woodard says that the inspector was responding 15 smoke and odor grievances against Jordan's grill since September, 2014.
He said that Graham was merely sent out to educate the resident. According to SaintPetersBlog, no citation was issued to Jordan.
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ― George Orwell
It's not over when you lose. It's over when you quit.
I wish I had neighbors that grilled out all the time, I'd be making friends and inviting myself for supper instead of bitchin about it. How could anybody be so pathetic as to be complaining to the law about grilling food smells?
Sounds a bit like the woman who came to my office in the park, a very large redwood camping park, to complain about the smoke from the camp stoves aggravating her asthma. She wanted all the cooking and warming fires banned. I told her she should immediately leave the park, as there was a inversion layer holding the smoke down near the ground, and that it would break around noon letting the smoke rise. Until then the park would smell like smoke and bacon and eggs being fried up. Further, I informed her that she should never return to the park, as there are many allergens from pollen to molds and fungus that will cause asthma to flair up.
She got on her high horse, accusing me of being insensitive to the needs of asthmatics. I laughed at her, reached into my pocket and pulled out my rescue inhaler, and showed her my epinephrine autoinjector, and bottle of Benadryl in my lunch box. I too have asthma I explained, in fact I was so allergic to inhalants and some foods, that I had been receiving immunization injections for years. My allergist even used me for a test subject to develop new drugs and treatments. They even used my blood samples to develop the allergen-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) test. She harrumphed off.
Soon received a call from the admin office, it was the little twist of a manager who wanted to know if we should ban campfires. I convinced her that was impractical, ridiculous for one person, and explained that I had worse asthma than the complainant. Never head about it again. But you can be assured that somewhere, in some meeting, a little twist of a manager or board member said; "I have an idea, lets outlaw barbecue smoke and odors from leaving a property to protect the health of sensitive people". Morons are everywhere, especially in Florida and California.
The man should take the liberal path to solving all problems: Post a sign that says "Smoke Free Zone" at the edge of his property. When the inspector comes back, he can then say, "I ordered that smoke to not leave my property, but the smoke disobeyed. I urge you to arrest that smoke."
I would imagine he was doing his job before this stupid law was enacted.
At that time you end up choosing between a job and whats right and wrong.
I know I"m getting close enough to retirement and old enough, that if it comes down here I"ll tell city hall how stupid they are, and then refuse to enforce until threatened, and then do my job.
I just don't understand why folks want to live in cities with all kinds of rules. But I'm glad they don't all want to live in the country without...
Still trying to figure out who I should call in the country, I saw a rat last night while shredding and Carolyn caught a 27 inch coral snake in the yard a while back... that just isn't right... but I have no one to file a complaint with. LOL.
We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
Still trying to figure out who I should call in the country, I saw a rat last night while shredding and Carolyn caught a 27 inch coral snake in the yard a while back... that just isn't right... but I have no one to file a complaint with. LOL.
Put them on the BBQ. When the county shows up, complain to them.
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ― George Orwell
It's not over when you lose. It's over when you quit.