Fire Chief expresses concern over slashpile

At last week’s meeting of Pine Haven’s council, Fire Chief TJ Gideon spoke to the increasing volume of the slash pile due to the diligent work of town residents “cleaning up their yards and that’s great!”

The problem emerging is the size of the pile and the time until the town can safely burn it.

“It’s getting big so we most likely will not burn it until winter. It’s going to get too big and it’s getting to that point,” he said.

Looking to avoid closing the highly utilized space down, the chief did not come to the assembly empty handed.

“My recommendation to avoid closing it is to possibly purchase a woodchipper or hire a contractor to come out and do that. Otherwise, we are going to have to close it down,” he said.

He again voiced his admiration of those who are maintaining their properties and his reluctance to close the site.

Pine Haven Mayor Karla Brandenburg agreed, “I don’t think we want to stop that so we’ve got to figure out a way to get it chipped up.”

A contractor, with his own wood chipper, who is independently hired from Gillette, quoted a price to Councilman Rob Norton of approximately $10,000 because it would be necessary to take another machine to “untangle” the debris.

The price of “a new commercial, eight-inch chipper that hooks to the town’s skid-steer,” is only $13,600, according to Gideon.

Gideon also made it clear that he was not volunteering to separate, chip or stack the resulting waste. “I’m coming up with the idea, I’m not saying I’ll do it.”

The subject was tabled to be taken under consideration; it will be discussed further at the July 2 workshop.