Read “Fart Letter” to Pendleton City Council In It’s Entirety Here
It's gone viral, and provided a lot of laughs while others deem it offensive. But it's definitely brought attention to a more serious issue.
The the wake of the Pendleton City Council adopting an ordinance concerning pot orders, a resident sent a very tongue-in-cheek letter to the council.
The City has decided to adopt a plan that could penalize someone up to $500 dollars if they're smoking weed, and the smoke or smell reaches their neighbor's home to the point of becoming offensive.
Peter Walters sent his own letter to the East Oregonian newspaper saying now the city needs to take up the issue of "farts." Here is his letter:
"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
Neither Walters nor anyone else has indicated which side of the pot issue Walter's stands on, either for or against, but his letter has certainly brought some humor to the entire issue.