By MELISSA PEACOCK

RESERVE – Big things are slated for the small town of Reserve.

War veterans, the Louisiana National Guard and the St. John the Baptist Parish Senior Center will, in the next few years, call Reserve home. But there is a dark cloud hanging the developments.

Firefighters with the Reserve Volunteer Fire Department believe that dark cloud is coming from a solid waste dump located in the area. The dump opened approximately eight years ago as a disposal site for tree limbs and wood. Now, there is more than just wood products being discarded there.

Gas cans, old sofas, vinyl siding and other solid wastes, some that can create hazardous fumes when burned, are among the flaming tree limbs at the dump. The smoke is flooding some parts of Reserve, fueling a fire in residential areas to have the dump removed.

“It smokes people out,” Fire Chief Glen Bourg said. “It needs to be moved.”

Bourg said firefighters answer response calls from residents concerned about the smoke all the time. At a recent Parish Council meeting, Bourg called emergency response to the dump a waste of time, money and equipment.

Parish officials said they have a permit that allows wood to be dumped and burned at the site. It is a short-term solution to wood disposal, an administration spokesperson said.

“We have a lot of development coming around,” said Chris Guidry, chief administrative officer. “It is going to be more difficult to continue at that location.”

Despite concern, the dump will continue to operate until an alternative is found.

“We are working on a couple of options,” Guidry said. “One is not burning and the other is moving the dump. We have enough parish land that we should be able to do that.”

Limb pickup is a popular service. When violent weather blows through, the need for the service increases and therefore so does the limb burning and complaints about the smoke.

Alternatives to the dump have been discussed in the past. Parish officials considered purchasing an incinerator and/or wood chipping equipment to deal with tree limbs.

“Now it has become completely out of hand,” Councilman Allen St. Pierre said. “People sandwich sofas and tires in with trees. It is bad for health.”

However, eliminating tree limb pick-up in the parish would be detrimental, St. Pierre said.

Civil Defense is against privately burning limbs in yards and residents depend on the parish to help get wood materials out of yards, he said.

“Every load is going to have to be completely examined (for non-wood items),” St. Pierre said. “It is a serious problem that is going to have to be fixed sooner or later.”

Bourg and other residents of Reserve believe the parish government’s response to fumes and smoke from the dump have not come quick enough and an alternative method of limb disposal could be slow in coming.

“I called the parish to ask for a copy of the permit and they were dumbfounded,” Bourg said. “I asked the administration at the meeting what the long-term plan is and they just said, ‘We have a long term plan.'”