Country habit clashes with law.Byline: The Register-Guard DEXTER - Juanita McDonald packed up her 90-year-old mother and other family members and moved to Dexter because she wanted the freedom and elbow room elbow room Noun sufficient scope to move or to function Noun 1. elbow room - space for movement; "room to pass"; "make way for"; "hardly enough elbow room to turn around" room, way of rural life. She chooses to stay in Dexter even though she works in Eugene and faces a draining commute TO COMMUTE. To substitute one punishment in the place of another. For example, if a man be sentenced to be hung, the executive may, in some states, commute his punishment to that of imprisonment. . She has a 1.5-acre plot with space for her mother's trailer and an apartment for other family members. But McDonald said her independence was violated vi·o·late tr.v. vi·o·lat·ed, vi·o·lat·ing, vi·o·lates 1. To break or disregard (a law or promise, for example). 2. To assault (a person) sexually. 3. early last year when Lane Regional Air Pollution Authority inspectors started dogging her about burning trash in a barrel - a tradition on her land. "I told Mom, `This isn't right. Next time I smell smoke, I'm going to start turning people in,' ' McDonald said, knowing even then that she wouldn't call. "You don't do things like that when you live in the country because you want to get along with your neighbors." However, it was McDonald's neighbors who turned her in for burning plastics and trash. Inspectors found evidence that someone had burned household trash in burn barrels on McDonald's property in January and March of 2003 - and the resulting $1,000 fine that LRAPA LRAPA Lane Regional Air Protection Agency (formerly Lane Regional Air Pollution Authority) imposed still galls her. The fine was far more than she - a 62-year-old grandmother raising two grandsons - should get stuck with, she said. And, besides, she figures she's the original environmentalist environmentalist a person with an interest and knowledge about the interaction of humans and animals with the environment. . "Oh man, I could teach lessons on" caring for the environment, said McDonald, who's the office manager at Quality Metal Finishing in Eugene. She said she turns out lights when she leaves a room; has timers on her lights and hoses; dries her clothes on a line all summer; and recycles bottles, cans and newspapers. "I drive with a constant pressure on the accelerator so I don't waste gas," she wrote to a hearings officer on her appeal of the LRAPA fine. "The only thing we ever burned was tissue paper, toilet paper, Q-Tips, maybe some plastic bags left over from groceries, milk cartons and other plastic stuff," she said. But the hearings officer didn't reverse the inspectors or let McDonald off the hook. The record showed inspectors first warned McDonald. Afterward af·ter·ward also af·ter·wards adv. At a later time; subsequently. Adv. 1. afterward - happening at a time subsequent to a reference time; "he apologized subsequently"; "he's going to the store but he'll be back here , neighbors continued to call officials on a regular basis about smoke coming from her property. Only then did an inspector return, charge McDonald with burning prohibited materials and levy a fine. After the hearing on July 29, 2003, the agency cut the fine to $600. But McDonald has yet to pay the fine, and LRAPA ruled in December that she was in default, meaning it could place a lien lien, claim or charge held by one party, on property owned by a second party, as security for payment of some debt, obligation, or duty owed by that second party. against her property. McDonald said she has other priorities. She said she owes on truck repairs, bills from replacing a crown on her tooth and overdue property taxes. A grandson is in baseball and needs a uniform and cleats. And she needs gas for her 62-mile daily round-trip commute. Besides, to her, injustice blows in on the evening air. "Everybody burns in Dexter. We live in the country." - Diane Dietz CAPTION(S): Juanita McDonald (left) shares her property in Dexter with her mother, Viola viola: see violin. viola Stringed instrument, the tenor member of the violin family. In appearance it is almost identical to the violin but slightly larger; its strings are tuned a fifth lower. Riddle riddle, puzzling question, specifically one that consists of a fanciful description or definition of something to be guessed. A famous riddle was asked by the Sphinx: "What goes on four legs in the morning, on two at noon, on three at night?" Oedipus guessed the . She also cares for two grandsons. |
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