The Prescott City Council will take up ordinances changes to put limits on hours of recreational burning.

The Ordinance Committee last Monday night worked to make some changes to proposed ordinance language that would require the fires be extinguished by 11 p.m.

Fires will not be allowed to be over three-feet in height and must be in a ring. Fires have to be supervised by someone over 16, and there must be a means available to extinguish the fire.

Also, wood used in the fire must be clean and dry with out yard waste, rubbish or treated wood allowed in a fire pit.

The matter was brought to the committee by a citizen. Mayor David Hovel had said at a recent meeting that neighbors should just be able to talk to each other if there’s a problem, but alderperson Tom Oss said unfortunately it doesn’t work that way anymore.

“The mayor mentioned that if something is bothering you, if it’s a nuisance, you just walk over to your neighbors and you tell them that. Well, I think maybe that was something that could have been done 20-30 years ago. But in our society right now, I’m not sure if marching over to your neighbors and telling them that their fire is a nuisance is a good thing. I think you’re asking to get popped in the schnoz,” said Oss. “We have to recognize that there are people that the second somebody lights a recreational fire, they’re going to perceive it as a nuisance. And then there’s other people that are going to think five nights a week of a recreational fire isn’t a nuisance but seven is.”

Some things like height of fire may be hard to enforce, and the committee considered changing the height to six feet. City Administrator Jayne Brand cautioned against that.

“Once you say six feet, they’re going to do eight feet,” she said.

Hovel advocated for keeping in language on clean, dry wood, noting that nothing with a finish on it can be burned.

“Don’t burn your furniture in your yard,” alderperson Bailey Ruona summarized.

Brand said there’s been just two complaints about burning made to the police department in the last two years.

If things come up with the new rules, it can be brought back to committee.

“It’s a starting point,” said Brand.

Another big topic at the Ordinance Committee in the last year has been a proposed ordinance to have all pools fenced in. The proposal had one reading at the city council level, but it’s coming back to committee.

The proposed ordinance would require all pools to have an annual permit that requires a fence at least fourfeet high. Brand told the committee that a resident came in with a question on why a fence is needed if they’re going to install a locking pool cover.

”A resident is putting in a new inground pool, and she’s putting a locking cover on it. She’s having a little bit of an issue with having to put a fence around it also with the locking cover,” she said.

“I think we should pull that back to ordinance (committee), just an opinion,” said Ruona.

Oss brought up that there have been instances when kids have jumped on locking covers and they’ve separated from the pool.

Ruona countered, “Quite frankly, kids jump fences every day.” She said that the ordinance language is too complicated perhaps to enforce.

“I agree,” said committee chair Hintz. “I’m kind of at the point where I feel I would rather motion to send it back to ordinance again.”