Public Safety Committee to Kicks Chicken Talk Back to Dally.

The City Council Public Safety Committee referred an ordinance that would prevent chickens from free roaming in the City back to City Attorney Nate Dally durring its regular meeting last Monday night in the Police Station.

The discussion was prompted by a request by a citizen during the last meeting to relax the current ordinance that prohibits the raising of chickens within 250 feet of a school, church or other dwelling. In that ordinance, chickens are allowed to roam free if they don’t offend other neighbors. The committee instead decided to strengthen the ordinance to prohibit chickens from roaming in any circumstance.

Just before the vote to recommend the change to the Council, one citizen who promoted the case of the urban chicken, questioned the restriction defined in the wording. He questioned whether by including the words "other fowl" (see the Wikipedia definition in the sidebar) if canaries, parrots and other house pets might not be affected. The Committee accepted the question as legitimate and decided to have Dally give an opinion.

The initial discussion, during the citizens participation period, was fairly evenly matched between a half dozen participants from the community. Three spoke of the evils of chicken raising within city limits, and three spoke of the virtues.

Another couple spoke of a broader issue of cattle and equestrian animals as well as chickens and ducks.

During the Committee member discussion period, no Committee member appeared to have a well defined opinion on the matter. No member spoke enthusiastically either for or against, but there prevailed an attitude of sympathy toward the neighbors of chicken raisers.

Pit Bulls Hang On.

During the Citizens participation period another citizen, recently moved to Carthage from Joplin, asked that the city review the prohibition of pit bulls in the city. He said he has received three citations for his pair of dogs. The Committee agreed to put the item on its next agenda.

Current Chicken Ordinance.

No person shall keep chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, pigeons, or other fowl in an enclosure which is less than two hundred fifty (250) feet from any dwelling, church or school, as measured from the exterior boundary of such enclosure, nor shall any person permit the accumulation of manure in any such enclosure.

(a) In this section "animal" means any goose, duck, turkey, chicken, mule, horse, sheep, hog, goat or other domestic animal or domestic fowl. "Animal" does not include a dog or cat.

(b) No person shall allow any animal owned, harbored, possessed or kept by him to run at large upon the land of another person to the damage or annoyance of such other person.

Current Pit Bull Ordinance.

(a) Prohibited; definitions. It shall be unlawful to keep, harbor, own or in any way possess within the city limits of the City of Carthage any pit bulldog. For the purposes of this section a pit bulldog is defined to mean:

(1) The bull terrier breed of dog;

(2) Staffordshire bull terrier breed of dog;

(3) The American pit bull terrier breed of dog;

(4) The American Staffordshire terrier breed of dog;

(5) Dogs of mixed breed or of other breeds than above listed which breed or mixed breed is known as pit bulls, pit bulldogs or pit bull terriers;

(6) Any dog which has the appearance and characteristics of being predominantly of the breeds of bull terrier, Staffordshire terrier, any other breed commonly known as pit bulls, pit bulldogs or pit bull terriers; or a combination of any of these breeds.

Fowl Language.

As opposed to "fowl", "poultry" is a term for any kind of domesticated bird or bird captive-raised for meat, eggs, or feathers; ostriches, for example, are sometimes kept as poultry, but are neither gamefowl nor waterfowl. In colloquial speech, however, the term "fowl" is often used near-synonymously with "poultry" or even "bird", and many languages do not distinguish between "poultry" and "fowl". Nonetheless, the fact that Galliformes and Anseriformes most likely form a monophyletic group makes a distinction between "fowl" and "poultry" warranted.

The historic difference is due to the Germanic/Latin split word pairs characteristic of Middle English; the word ‘fowl’ is of Germanic origin (cf. Old English "Fugol", German Vogel, Danish Fugl), whilst poultry is of Latin via Norman French origin.

Many birds that are eaten by humans are fowl, including poultry such as chickens or turkeys, game birds such as pheasants or partridges, other wildfowl like guineafowl or peafowl, and waterfowl such as ducks or geese.

Jasper County Jail Count

179 February 28, 2011

Total Including Placed out of County

Weekly Column

CLICK and CLACK

TALK CARS

Do those clamp-on or strap-on devices that go on your tires help with winter driving traction? Or do they just clamp on my wallet? James

Tom: Sure, they can help. There are several different types of devices that can be used as temporary traction aids.

Ray: Consumer Reports tested a few of them, and the conclusion was that they can help, under certain situations, but they’re not very easy to put on.

Tom: They tested one product called the AutoSock, which is a mesh sock that you slip over each tire, and the mesh gives you additional traction in certain conditions.

Ray: The tested in on a snow-covered hill in Vermont and found that with the Auto Sock, they could get their Honda Accord to the top of the hill, which they couldn’t do with just the all-season tires.

Tom: They also tested a set of temporary "tire chain-like" things called SnoBootz. With straps and Velcro, you attach these textured rubber pads to your tires, and the pads are supposed to dig into the snow and increase your grip.

Ray: Consumers found that in soft snow, SnoBootz were disappointing. They dug into the snow and got stuck, just like regular tires do. But on roads with packed snow, the SnoBootz were impressive and increased tire grip significantly.

Tom: The downside of these devices is that they’re fairly expensive (the Auto Sock is 100 bucks per pair of wheels, and the SnoBotz are $250 for four). While that’s not quite equal to the price of four good snow tires (which will help you more than anything), it is a significant investment.

Ray: They’re also both fairly difficult to install. So you should plan to get wet and cold when doing so.

Tom: If you decide to toss one of these products in your trunk, consider also tossing in a waterproof jumpsuit and some hand warmers.

artCentral

ART NOTES from Hyde House

by Sally Armstrong, Director of artCentral

I am beginning to plan for our next exhibition here at Hyde House which opens March 23rd and continues through April 8th. Titled "Expressions from an Abstract Mind", the show will include paintings done by Springfield artist Dale Augustson. This exhibition will also include a two day workshop presented by the artist, March 31st and April 1st. He is hoping to have no more than 6 students, no less than 3, so it will be a very specialized class giving each student a lot of attention and instruction. I have mailed out a number of informational letters regarding this workshop, and still have several places available to any adult artist who might be interested in learning a bit about abstract painting from this artist. Dale Augustson uses acrylic paints, and includes in his paintings a number of multi-media "extras" such as sand and objects for texture, as well as dimensional pieces added on to create interest beyond the paint. I know from viewing his paintings that he uses many additions to the acrylic paint in his own works, and the tiny mirrors, sequins, sea glass, fabric and lace scraps, glitter and old photographs, twine, sticks and stones, twine and toothpicks, make for very interesting art! If you have never painted before, this might be a fun and less intimidating way to get started, as the style will be abstract and less rigid. I would love to visit with anyone who might have questions about this class, and please don’t hesitate to email me or call the gallery for additional information. I can be reached at artcentral@suddenlinkmail.com or by calling 358-4404. Meantime, we still have one week left in the showing of the current exhibition of the 48 artist members of JRAC which continues to draw visitors to the gallery and hopefully will do so again this coming weekend. We will be open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5:00 daily, and artists may pick up work after 4:30 on Sunday March 4th if they so desire. Otherwise, pick-up will be on Monday the 5th from 9:00 to 5:00 that day. Please come by and take one last look at this beautiful showing of area artists’ work, and you will be glad that you did!