See "Paying for Big Government" a few articles back. Cities especially simply do not care what the law says, it will be read as you owing money to them. Your ice rink is actually a pool (pay up, mister) or your turkey sandwich is actually junk food (pay up, kid).

A neighbor up the street had put up a four foot, above ground pool in his back yard for his girls to play in. The township passed legislation saying pools had to be fenced in.

They wanted to cite him because he didn't have a fence and would not put one up. Meanwhile there was no requirement to fence in the pond (man-made) less than 100 yards away.

I loved the resolution: The inspector visited and was telling him the fence was the only answer. Neighbor tells the inspector to wait by the pool while he visits the garage. Neighbor walks to the pool carrying a fire axe which he puts through the side and causes the pool to collapse and run water knee high across the inspectors dress pants and shoes.

The daughters now play in the mud pit left behind.

I think a good question is where is all that water going to go once it thaws? Take down the supports and let it flow, into someone else's backyard? One of my neighbors pools sprung a leak (above ground) and I woke up to 6 inches of water in my backyard one morning. Chlorinated water. Not great for the plants.

Jim, pools have to be fenced most places. Yes, other parents should keep the ever-watchful eye on their kids (oh, wait, isn't that helicopter parenting) but I doubt your friend wanted to walk out to some drowned kid one day. Kids are attracted to pools. Fences keep them from drowning. I bet your friend's neighbors didn't appreciate the flood when he decided to make his childish statement. .

M4,

I should have pointed out that we are out in the "township" and part of the zoning laws was/is that you have to have a minimum of five (5) acres to build. Our mutual neighbor, across the street, has 200+ acres as a farm.

And why doesn't the pond require a fence -- no ladder needed to get in?

A fence for a pool should be standard, but not law. Pool owner places the odds game and if an accident happens, they pay.

Still it is surprising how common sense is never used by government officials. I would like some congressmen to support the commonsense bill. Make it law for government people to be trained to use their brains. I mean it keeps getting weird with TSA officials confiscating gooey cupcakes in jars. Teachers with the inability to differentiate between midol /cocaine or a picture of a gun/toy gun/actual gun and decide the former are risks. Or some 17 year old had sex with his 16 year old girlfriend of 1 year and he is just the same as every other sexual predator.

As to risks and banning.
Let's add backyard rinks could have mosquitoes and malaria. Let's add to the list
Sandboxes, cat shit and some weird crazy causing bacteria. So all cats must be leashed or better killed.
A 50 meter walk to the store for candy is just and dangerous as the Bataan Death March.
A child and a gun in the same house. Never mind it is locked in a safe with a trigger lock and the bullets are hidden in another safe place. Little Suzy might crack the safe with her fisherprice stereoscope. The using here crayolas proceed to pick the trigger lock. Then get the bullets out of the top of the closet in a locked room with here one foot tall chair. The load and cock said gun, the proceed to kill a whole bunch of people.
A 3 foot ledge near a school is a death hazard comparable to the cliffs of the Big Sur. Got to bulldoze it and make sure all kids wear bike helmets till then.
My neighbors once weekly cigar will cause me lung cancer 100 feet away and with get past the five trees and glass patio door which which is closed.
That 65 year old grandmother of 5 might be a white slaver, until her security check and polygraph is done she can not read to some children one of which is here granddaughter.
Smoke pot once and you will ruined for life and proceed to mainline heroin the next week.
Can not have a man in the cooking class as he might go crazy and decide to rape all the women.
Can not teach evolution as the reader might get confused, think there is no God, forget about all social mores and laws and give human sacrifice a try.

More later! If wanted?

My state (Maryland), being starved for money, tried to jack my mother for back taxes she did not owe a few years ago. Fortunately, she had documentation that she was paid up, so she dodged that bullet.

Can not have a man in the cooking class as he might go crazy and decide to rape all the women

Got a link on that on?

momof4 here's a handy guide on how to drain, dismantle, and store your backyard rink.

I didn't know they made submersible pumps that you can fit a garden hose. So one could use the rink to water the lawn and garden, or simply divert it into the storm drain if you don't have space or a marsh handy.

So one could use the rink to water the lawn and garden, or simply divert it into the storm drain if you don't have space or a marsh handy.

Posted by: I R A Darth Aggie

Gotta be carful with that, in the Phoenix area it is acctually illegal to dump clean water into the storm drain system

"It is important and considerate to think of not flooding the neighbors."

Locally - and, I expect this is nationwide - people are surprised when the weather floods their neighborhood. It doesn't occur to them that a hundred-home development changes the flood plain.

More silliness for which I am awaiting a big government solution.

We have, at SRS, a Material Safety Data Sheet for water. The instructions include rinsing with clean water in the case of a spill. We're wondering when we can stop. If you flood, it might be we can't decide.

Hey! That's my rink. Or was. I gave up on winter and drained it today.

It was about three thousand gallons. I siphoned it into my dry well, from which it discharges into ground water. This is the same dry well my drainspouts go to. I had to stop the siphon for a few hours today, as the dry well was getting full. But I was paying enough attention to do that.

Pools do need to be fenced in Mass. They also need filters, pumps, etc.... But the definition of pool in the state law here includes that it is intended for swimming, bathing or wading. Unless they add "skating" to that list, there is no fence rule for the rink. Common sense though: the rink is in a fenced yard.

One more note: I don't think it's a good idea to save the water.

It's not good to water right now; the grass and most of my garden is still dormant, and will be for a few weeks at least. Putting it on the ground will just make mud, which will mean I more likely damage plants by walking on them.

And it's 12,000 liters of water. With spring rains coming, I probably won't be watering my garden very much, if at all, until maybe May, June or even July. The water weighs over 25,000 lb: if I put it in a small space, it would compact my soil! I think returning it to groundwater like I did is the best plan.

Irrelevant, but 18th-century satirist and poet Alexander Pope said:

"Amusement is the happiness of those who cannot think."

"We have, at SRS, a Material Safety Data Sheet for water. The instructions include rinsing with clean water in the case of a spill. "

What? You're going to intentionally rinse with... with... a substance? A chemical??? Have you no decency, sir?

Yes, we need to banDihydrogen Monoxide. It is such a danger to everyone.

Well it is responsible for trillions of deaths acoss countless species

We pay a lot for government, and not one of us can say they don't get what they pay for.