By Carrie Moritz,
Garretson Gazette
On Monday, June 3, the Garretson City Council met in regular session. While the public portion of the meeting was only an hour, the council found itself being updated in several areas, from parks to sidewalks, and opted to move forward with a mill and overlay on 5th Street.
City moratorium on front yard fencing continues
The council continued its policy of not allowing permanent fences in front yards last Monday, after a request was submitted for a variance.
At Monday's meeting, Fourth Street resident Judy Klima, a Vietnam-era Marine service veteran, requested a variance to place a wrought-iron fence in her front yard so she could let her dogs out of the house without needing to navigate steps. The Notice of Hearing and the variance presented in the meeting stated a chain-link fence had been requested, but Klima clarified that it was to be wrought iron.
"I have neuropathy in both feet, so walking and doing steps is pretty hard," she said.
While the council expressed empathy for her situation, they questioned the precedent that would be set if permanent fences were allowed in front yards. Currently, as the ordinance is laid out, fencing is not to go past the edge of the front of the house unless a variance is requested. The council only recently changed ordinances to allow for fences to be installed in side yards and on property lines without a variance request.
"My only concern with it was that this is going to apply to the property indefinitely," said councilor Brayden Beaner. He pointed out that nowhere else in Garretson had a permanent fence in the front yard been allowed.
"There are other solutions," said Joe Schmid, another 4th Street resident. He confirmed that he was not a direct neighbor of Klima's, but he was opposed to having a permanent fence in a front yard. "If it was a temporary fence, I would not have a problem with it."
He suggested other options such as an invisible fence or a satellite GPS system, suggestions that Mayor Bruce Brown agreed with. Brown pointed out that the other options might also save Klima quite a bit of money.
The fence would also be impacted by the 4th Street project that is starting this summer, according to Public Works employees Jordan Doane and JR Hofer, a project Klima was unaware of. She pointed out she had moved to town in January and hadn't heard there would be construction in front of her house.
Despite their empathy with her plight, the council voted unanimously to deny the variance as requested.
4th Street Project has tentative start date
While no further details were given by Public Works Director Jordan Doane, he reported in the meeting that the bid acceptance letter had been signed, and that First Rate Excavate was potentially beginning on 4th Street construction at the end of July. He has stated in the past that the engineering company, Sayre Associates, intends to hold a public informational meeting prior to the start of the project.
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