The November meeting of the City Council held on November 4 had a large community turn out, due to the Pet Ordinance amendment that was on the agenda. Other items the council attended to were a presentation on intent to purchase land west of Granite Ave and discussions on upgrading the system used for on-line City Ordinance searches, approval of liquor licenses and the requirement to have fences be at least two feet off the property line.
All council members were in attendance, and after approving natural gas prices as recommended, they started with the pet ordinance request that had been addressed in October.
Pet Ordinance Left As-Is
Councilmember Tom Godbey began with a prepared statement, starting with taking responsibility for bringing the issue to the table.
“It only takes one person to screw it up for all of us,” he said, apologizing for having tried to use the power of his office to make this type of change. It was, he said, truly a failure of calls to animal control to enforce the issue, which had been caused by a neighbor that has since moved out. “I thought I was in a position to do something.”
The council agreed that the noise and nuisance portion of the ordinance does need to be improved, and councilmember Richelle Hofer moved to leave the ordinance as is.
At that time, the council opened the floor for public comment, and several community members stepped up to speak.
“I’m just curious, how much of a problem do we have with this?” asked Kelli Peterson. “Is there an overabundance?”
Godbey admitted it was just this one incident, though other community members later said there are other continual barking dogs around the community. Bill Lisenmeyer, who lived near the neighbor as well, noted that he had contacted the Sheriff’s office twice about the dogs, and that he never saw Animal Control stop out at the residence.
Further discussion revolved around strengthening parameters and enforcement, and decided to invite a representative from the Sheriff’s department to December’s meeting so they could re-structure the nuisance portion properly. A final vote on leaving the ordinance as is for now was passed with 4 in favor, and Godbey and councilmember Dave Bonte voting against.
Oran Sorenson then addressed the council with a newly-worded resolution for support of leaving the current Palisades State Park entrance open.
“I think they really do need the new entrance,” he said, clarifying earlier remarks at the September and October meetings. However, having a direct link to Garretson is the underlying issue, he continued, and is especially important to local business owners.
Councilmember Hofer noted that the newly-worded Resolution was very well done, and said she had also obtained something from an outside professional. She offered to have a meeting individually with Sorenson so they could put them together, as well as a potential game plan.
Councilmember Bill Hoskins wondered about asking for something else, such as a bike trail. The council then opted to table the resolution until Sorenson and Hofer could meet.
