On Thursday afternoon, the village posted the agenda for a special village board meeting on Monday, June 29 at 6 p.m. at Brookfield Village Hall, 8820 Brookfield Ave.
And on that agenda is none other than an ordinance amending the village code’s section on open burning.
Trustees are expected to pass a proposed amendment to the law that would allow the use of backyard fire pits, with restrictions being placed on where they can be located relative to brick or wood structures. The proposed law would also prohibit fire pits from being used between the hours of 11 p.m. and 11 a.m.
The village board was expected to vote on the law Monday night but tabled it after getting hung up on language that placed the same restrictions on grills used for cooking. Had the village board waited until their next meeting to deal with the matter, trustees would not have voted until July 13.
Village President Kit Ketchmark said the board was going to have to meet prior to July 3 in any case because it needed to approve a retirement agreement with a police officer.
It made sense, he said, to add the open burning ordinance to the agenda to complete a village-wide discussion that’s been taking place since April.
“It was kind of frustrating on this,” said Ketchmark, who noted it will be seven weeks since the board first began weighing a change to the present law, which outlaws all open burning.
“It’s too long on something like this,” Ketchmark said. “At this point, we’re going to move on, either way.”
While there has been some pushback on the proposal to allow fire pits from those who say they are health hazards and nuisances, a majority of the village on Monday appeared inclined to allow them. The only hold-up was the language regarding grills.
