By Joyce Miles<br><a href="mailto:milesj@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Joyce</a>
About once a month, a cloud of stuff emanates from the direction of Ohio Street and deposits itself on cars, patio furniture and houses along Stevens Street and South Bristol Avenue.
The cloud isn’t composed of dust or vapors, it’s tiny wood fibers — and once they settle on homeowners’ things, South Bristol Avenue resident Beverly Landrigan says they’re a bear to clean up.
Only a good rain washes them away, but water also makes the fibers clump. Windshield wiping turns the clumps into sticky brown smears on Landrigan’s car.
She wonders what inhalation of dry fibers might be doing to people.
“The instances (of wood fiber dispersal) are few and far between, but it’s still an air quality issue,” Landrigan said. “We’ve got enough going on here already. We don’t need any more to deal with.”
Landrigan has asked Building Inspector Jason Dool to revisit a wood grinding operation doing business from High Tread International’s property along Ohio Street.
Dool checked out the operation earlier this year in response to complaints from Stevens Street homeowners about the deposits, and Dool said the operator agreed to install a device that would catch stray fibers before they floated off site.
Now, apparently, the problem is back and Landrigan wants it stopped.
“Obviously, with the economy the way it is, I don’t want to put anybody out of business, but there has to be some standards here,” she said. “This stuff coats everything. It comes into the house through open windows ... .”
The fibers are as much a nuisance as the quarry dust that settles over the city’s west end when the wind blows eastward from LaFarge, Landrigan said. Together, the substances detract some more from the homes edging an already blighted industrial zone.
Dool said he’s been unable to get in touch with either the grinder operator or High Tread owner Derek Martin the past couple of weeks to arrange an inspection. In lieu of a visit, he said, the city will send a written violation notice to Martin alerting him High Tread property is the suspected site of pollution generation, and Martin must get it corrected.
“We know we had a problem there before, so it’s our best guess that’s where (the fibers) are coming from now,” Dool said. “Hopefully we can get this resolved within a couple days.”
Martin could not be reached to comment Tuesday.
