Fire Marshall This Morning
I have an hour and fifteen minutes before I meet the Fire Marshall over at Piedmont Biofuels Industrial. Normally this would not be a problem, I’ve passed inspection many times, except this time he has an axe to grind about our coop operation.
I’ve asked the Cosmic Waiter for this meeting to go well, and surely I will get everything I want or something better. But today’s meeting is against a backdrop of local regulation and history that is uncomfortable for us.
Local regulation keeps biodiesel underground. Anyone hanging around the scene has heard heroic tales of off-grid machine shops, solar inventions to avoid electrical permits, people operating out of container trucks which are mobile, and in U-Store-It facilities etc.
Piedmont Biofuels has always had a strategy of staying public. Which means we have been committed to staying legal. Girl Mark may not care for my spectacular speeches, but we believe they are an important part of our education and outreach. Since education and outreach is perhaps the largest piece of our pie, we can’t do it if we are hiding from the local authorities.
Our guest for staying legal began three years ago, when we wanted to set up our homebrewing operation at Moncure Chessworks. I went down to County Government and explained what we were doing and they flipped out.
They not only disallowed small scale production of biodiesel, they indicated that I would have to close my sculpture studio. Chessworks is an abandoned gas station on the edge of a forgotten highway—once the old road to Florida—that has long been replaced by four lane. It’s fuel tanks are still in the ground out front. I covered the open pipes with dirt, flowers and sculpture to reduce the risk of someone flicking an errant cigarette butt down there and blowing the village up.
From the County’s perspective, fuel is fuel. Vegetable oil and rocket fuel would be covered by the same page of the ordinance book.
At the time the County told us to move to an unzoned portion of Moncure, which led us to Summer Shop. With no running water, and no walls, Summer Shop had some decided disadvantages. But we were in compliance, and we persevered.
As an aside, I went to considerable effort to make Chessworks legal, the outcome of which was a new ordinance that allowed “Art Fabrication” to be permitted in areas zoned for business.
Our current refinery is in what was an abandoned mobile home, also in an unzoned portion of Chatham County. With its current interns, worker members, goats, chickens, and farming operations it would be hard to describe it as abandoned now. The fact is we have re-graveled the roads, and built new ones to accommodate the traffic about the place.
Which meant that when the Planning Department came for a surprise visit, they found us in compliance.
The Fire Marshall, on the other hand, felt that we needed a visit from County Inspections.
When I got wind of this I went to their office in Pittsboro and learned that you cannot do business out of a mobile home in Chatham County. When I enquired as to why, I was told it was for structural reasons dictated by the North Carolina Commercial Building Code.
“We are on a slab,” I said.
“Then you would need to get your slab stamped by a professional engineer…”
This struck me as lunacy, but I bit my tongue. Off I went to a local architect that I have worked with in the past. He can stamp. I explained the situation, in the hopes that he would come out and certify our slab.
“I thought you were a farm,” he said.
“We are,” I replied.
“North Carolina Commercial Building Code does not apply to farm structures,” he said.
And with that I had my angle. Chatham County government does not regulate the buildings of farm coops, and when I explored that with them, the case was closed.
Except not with the Fire Marshall. When I arranged our appointment for this morning, he brought up the coop. Today Leif and I want to get approval for an indoor tank farm at Industrial. It has nothing to do with our current operations, but there was a decided feeling that we have some unfinished business with the Fire Marshall.
In a few minutes we will go meet with him, and get clear about how all of our activities are legal, and he will permit our new tank farm design. That’s the order I’m putting in.
Posted by Lyle at February 25, 2005 10:56 AM
Comments
I like this talk about revolution. It's funny that some very small percentage of humans, say 1%, control 99%. It is a myth that we control the government. That Lyle was able to get a change in government that permitted Chessworks would be an affirmation of the system to some. But this is exactly what government wants. They like being told that they are important and might even like it when great things are accomplished, as long as they allowed and controlled. I call government a python. Any slight twitching or breathing results in a taking up of slack. Who wants to spend their time and energy petitioning government to allow them to participate in living free and prosperous. It is the birthright of every human to live and act and trade and marry and smoke in any way that pleases them. The only limit is that they may not interfere with others rights to do the same. While were at it, anywhere on earth I stand is a free speech zone. I conceed that sometimes you have to live in the real world and changing a boneheaded law is more productive than taking up arms. Because some people are willing to wade through the artificial muck great things are allowed.
Imagine telling a rural landowner 100 years ago that some new ruling allows the construction of a shed or that the plumbing from the windmill to the water tank must be inspected. Look at how far we've progressed in the conquest of man.I think you'd be escorted off the land with a shotgun and I wish it were that way today. I wish govenment feared our response. They don't fear us in the slightest. They don't even fear us at polling time because they know their subjects have a high time preference. Candy they hand out today pays for last years slap in the face.
Oh, and it doesn't matter which of the two parties you vote for. The demopublicans and the republicrats are interchangable. Either way you get to lose your freedom(kidnapping) for lighting up a joint. Grow a little to share with your friends and you're a drug trafficker=40 years, maybe. Clinton signed a law that allows that state to kill non-violent drug traffickers.(18 U.S.C. 3591(b)). He added 100,000 goons(police) to the US. Which of the two candidates last year support gay marriage? Neither. WHich support mass state murder(war)? BOth. Anyone you can vote for, other than a libertarian, fears freedom and it is proved by the long and slow 200 year constriction of american liberties.
Maybe the best way is to have more and more pockets of resistance where people do as they please with their coops or their cars or their houses. Make it a part of our culture that we don't care what the government thinks. Make it a part of our culture that we don't submit to involuntary taxation or control of marriage.
Posted by: Bill Knighton | February 26, 2005 10:14 AM
F*ckin' government. It's the same old shit everytime someone wants to do something useful or helpful.
The Facts don't matter: It's not my department. I don't know about that. I'll have to transfer you to someone else. That is what it says in the regulations. We don't do that. I can't help you. I clock out at five.
This is how bloody revolutions start.
Posted by: KJK | February 26, 2005 03:26 AM
Good luck Lyle. I know how hard it is to both stay in the public eye and do what needs to be done. For three years, we've felt somewhat alone in this part of California in the quest to do things legally, often times when the rulebook hasn't been written yet. Just remember: it's worth it. We are setting the example.
Posted by: Kumar Plocher | February 25, 2005 01:38 PM