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Information and Resources for the residents of Langley Grove Estates |
Smoke and Music
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October 7th, 2009 - Live bands, Open Burning |
October 7th, 2009
I guess no-one else thought to call the Langley Fire Department earlier this week when the park turned blue and stunk of burning tires and garbage?
I had smelled the burning garbage for a day or 2, along with the burning rubber but I assumed the rubber smell was just my Computer and other electronics running hot.
The next day, I went out for a bit and came home to see huge billowing clouds of smoke rising at the west end of Bayou Avenue. The air was thick with smoke and even inside my home it was difficult to breath.
Everything in the house stunk like a dirty old campfire or burning wet wood.
It took some time trying to find a human to answer the phone at any of our local Fire Departments so I finally called the Langley RCMP's non emergency number and they managed to contact someone at the Fire Department and have them call me back.
Although the property owner may have been issued a burning permit, proper care was not exercised in the burning process and it's never allowed to use tires as a fire starter.
In many cases, forced air is required to ensure a clean burn. Producing that amount of smoke is just not allowed. The Fire Department has since issue a temporary cancellation of all burning permits due to the recent wind conditions that carried that smoke right up Bayou avenue and into our homes.
In special cases, burning may still proceed but they must provide adequate air to prevent choking out the neighbors.
Please, if this ever happens again, don't hesitate to make a complaint. You have a right to breath clean air, especially in your own home.
For most of the summer, we've had to put up with very loud music coming from the property to the east of the Apex sports field. Although the police have been called on numerous occasions, this live band always seemed to know the police were on their way and would stop playing.
This was happening a couple of times a week and it just got louder each time.
At one point, it went on until about 11PM.
I'm about 1/4 mile away from that property and could hear it quite clearly over top of my TV with the surround sound on at a fair volume.
I think tonight they may have finally been caught in the act and maybe we'll get back to a being a normal quiet neighborhood for a while.
Again, please report these kinds of disturbances.! Call the Langley RCMP's non emergency number and tell them what's happening.
If you live near the Apex School, you may be aware of the excessive noise coming from the "music program" they tried to force on us and the almost 2 year battle to end the noise coming from the portable.
They tried everything to justify it, saying they'd had audio engineers do tests and all was acceptable.
Not to me it wasn't, Not inside my home it wasn't.
They brought out the School Board high rollers with their pretty white hard hats and gave them a demonstration as well.
Of course, when you're being investigated by your superiors, the volume is never as loud as it is at any other time. ;)
I was in contact with Stacy Cody and she was trying to deal with it until the Superintendent who's recently been involved in other scandals put a gag order on the whole thing.
Well, the Principal of Apex didn't seem able or willing to deal with the noise issue so I called in WorkSafe BC to do some more random and representative noise level testng. Since I'm self employed, they couldn't help me directly but did advise that the sound levels were unreasonable for any staff working in that portable. Following that, rather than just practice a little common sense and restraint, or turn down the volume, they spent a fortune to insulate the floors of that portable.
There's where part of your 8 million dollar budget overrun went!
Anyone who's ever lived in a mobile home can tell you, you cannot play drums or play guitars through 1000 watt amplifiers and not piss off your neighbors.
Now it's just wait and see if they get out of control again.
The Langley bylaw office
is totally useless in situations like this so if you're affected by the noise or the low frequencies droning through your home, Fraser Health may be able to help. ELF - Extra low Frequencies or ULF - Ultra Low Frequencies, can be very harmful for some people!
You don't have to tolerate any of this though.
We live in a residential neighborhood and have a right to peaceful enjoyment of our properties and homes.
If you have a complaint, make it known!
If you don't get anywhere with your complaints, contact us and we'll either help or point you in the right direction. :)
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