Pubdate: Sat, 23 May 2015
Source: East Oregonian (Pendleton, OR)
Copyright: 2015 The East Oregonian
Contact:  http://www.eastoregonian.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3903
Author: Peter Walters

FARTS SHOULD BE PENDLETON COUNCIL'S NEXT ORDER OF BUSINESS

It was with great relief Thursday when I read in the East Oregonian 
that Pendleton's city council took the time to pass an amendment to 
the city's nuisance ordinance banning marijuana odor. Clearly, there 
has been no issue of greater importance facing the city. Now that 
this important work has been completed I hope that the council will 
move on to restricting the other offensive smell that plagues our 
community: farts.

While farting may be legal in Oregon, many (including myself) are 
offended by the flatulent stench. Too often, homeowners and 
businesses fail to contain farts to their property, forcing the rest 
of us to put up with the smell. Some habitual farters argue that they 
need to fart for medical reasons but that doesn't mean my kids should 
have to smell their farts. The city council should stop looking the 
other way and pretending not to notice.

I'm not even going to talk about intensity of farts. After all, as 
Pendleton police Chief Stuart Roberts put it: "It's a very subjective 
standard in terms of whether people are offended by [smells] or not."

This issue greatly affects me as I have a roommate whose recreational 
farting has been negatively affecting my quality of life for several 
months now. He claims that he is taking steps to mitigate the odor 
after I contacted the authorities. But unless our elected officials 
add farts to Pendleton's nuisance code, it's as if he who smelt it, 
dealt it. I call on our city council to set aside all other work and 
address this problem.

Peter Walters

Pendleton
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom