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| Can We Say State Wide BURN BAN? |
Sitting outside my apartment earlier this evening could not help but notice a merry band of young men with one senior adult walking past on the other side of the street. Especially when they were all carrying plastic bags, one of the young men carrying two Tiki torches, another a sword...though it is noted that the sword looked as if it might have been made of plastic, though none the less it was a sword. To say the least, this was ODD in our small hamlet, so I decided to have a look see.
Cutting down around the Upsate Karate Studio, and barely down the path leading to our small scenic bridge the gentleman carrying the two tiki torches lit them, and flashlights appeared...so NOT what one usually sees in Mountaindale, so decided to stand my distance and see what transpired.
From what one could tell, these eight or so gentlemen were having a late night picnic down by the stream behind the old abandoned high school on the edge of town...nothing persay wrong with that, but the campfire that they comminced to build, its sparks leaping into the air, and into the near by woods seemed to run contrary to Governor Cuomo's state wide burn ban.
A call to the local Fallsburg Police saw them arrive well over one hour later (great response time)...long after the fire had been extinquished and the group had left, to look into the banned fire that was but feet from the woodland area. Still outside, I watched as those who had built the fire left the area, so I asked a question of them..."Are you aware there is a statewide band on fires?"
The leader of the group replied, "No, but it is OK, we got permission from Ken."
Now there are several Ken's in the area that I know of, one of which is a judge, so not sure who this Ken is that said they could go back to our beloved bridge and start a fire. What I do know, is that someone thinks they are above the law, or perhaps they believe the law does not apply to them. A fire ban is in place for a reason...to protect ALL OF US who live in the Mountaindale Community.
