Chicken issue fowls council unity

After the last few months of discussion among town residents and a recent public meeting allowing residents to speak candidly, this month’s meeting of Pine Haven’s council entertained the question of allowing chickens within town limits.

With opinions divided on the matter, the discussion led to discontent within the audience and was shortly followed by the resignation of Councilwoman Kristy Speed.

The signatures of everyone who came forward with an opinion, either for or against, had been gathered over a period of time. These were subsequently counted before Tuesday night’s assembly, with the pro-chicken group leading by four names.

The council had to vote to amend ordinance 64b in order to allow chickens, but the overruling consensus of the governing body was to leave the municipal law as written, not allowing any farm animals in town.

Councilwoman Suzette Edwards spoke to her way of thinking: “Personally, I thought it was a great idea; I love chickens, I think they’re fantastic. However, one of the things that changed my mind was when we had the Crook County Predator Control gentleman [Wade Dennis]. He explained a lot of issues about having domesticated livestock in town and predators…The other thing is we have about 100 signatures of which 63 say for [chickens]; so 63 people out of 500…I’m trying to represent the whole town and it seems like we have the silent majority.”

Other council members agreed with Edwards’ summarization of the situation.

Mayor Karla Brandenburg added that the ordinance 64b was in place when people bought property in Pine Haven.

“Now, there’s a small group who want to change that…so now they’ve decided they want to change the rules. I don’t think that’s fair to the rest of us who bought here and have property here, who don’t want chickens,” she said.

This reasoning of the council was with the notable exception of Councilwoman Kristy Speed. Speed spoke strongly regarding the desire for this revision evidenced by the number of signatures for the back yard fowl.

“More people want them than don’t want them. A lot of people don’t care to have them, but don’t care if their neighbors do have them, so I don’t see why we are turning down the people who have voted to have them than the people who voted not to have them. I’m for chickens,” she said.

A number of citizens in the audience became riled at the opposition of the majority and were reprimanded for speaking out of order while the council was conducting business. One such outburst came from former mayor Mike Smith, who later was provided an opportunity to speak.

“You’re not representing the people…Towns change rules all the time,” he said. “There are towns all around us that are opening up and letting this happen…We had 63 people who went to the trouble to sign that and we’re not considering them.”

An unanticipated result came from this meeting with the resignation of Kristy Speed from the Pine Haven Town Council.