Ronan council welcomes chickens, hears subdivision concern

Chicken ordinances and a future public hearing were all a part of a light Ronan City Council meeting to close out the month of July.

Last Wednesday’s agenda solidified a change in Ronan’s animal-control ordinance, amending it to include chickens.

This amendment would allow chickens within the city of Ronan and now segues into the council making a permit that would allow for up to six chickens per resident.

Some questions arose about who’s responsible if chickens are killed and who would enforce this. Ultimately, those issues would be decided by the police as Ronan does not have a formal animal-control task force.

“You've got an ordinance, you're supposed to protect your chickens,” Ronan city attorney Ben Anciaux said. “And so you're gonna have a balancing kind of act there to who is at fault. If you let your dog into somebody else's property, that’s not a good thing.”

This permit was discussed in a city council meeting earlier this month but still required some deliberation before any formal action could be taken. This vote passed 4-1 with only council member Ryan Corum voting no. Council member Julie Moore was not present.

Street dedication questioned

One point of contention came during the meeting when Ronan residents Scott and Anita Beggs discussed their concerns about the legality of a proposed 30-foot street dedication at the end of a subdivision where they live.

The Beggs had applied last year to subdivide their property. However, Ronan city planner Dan Miller said they would need to extend Seventh Ave. SW. After some deliberation outside the meeting, Miller came to the council with a question.

“Before they go through all of the subdivision steps to create this, they want to know what's the likelihood of us requiring that street dedication,” Miller explained. “Because if we're going to require it, they would probably just withdraw their application.”

The Beggs were intending to sell property to friends of theirs, Chad and Sara Hoffman. However, after doing some research, they found some problems in the city code and wanted to know if it was legal for the city to insist on adding 30 feet to the street, even though the Beggs stated that their street, which is considered a half street, does not fall under those guidelines.

The Beggs believe that the addition of a 30-foot road would possibly cut through someone else’s property and believe the existing road is not up to standard with the code available for road additions.

While there was no vote last week, a public hearing will be scheduled to discuss the matter. The Hoffmans have said they would not pursue purchasing the property if this addition to the road is mandated.

Permits approved

The council also approved permit requests for upcoming community events. Micheal Bartel sought permits for open containers and street closures for Pioneer Days and his 325 Bar and St. Luke Community Hospital asked for the street closure for an end-of-summer picnic.

Bartel’s street closures are on Third and Fourth Avenues on the dates of Aug. 4-6, Aug. 12 and Sept. 9. The hospital’s picnic is set for Aug. 31 with street closures on Fourth Ave. all the way to Main Street.

In other business:

• The council amended language for mixed and industrial zoning areas to include slaughtered animals and removed that category from the not-approved portion of the list. This move was congruent with the vote at the previous meeting to annex 31 acres off of Mink Lane, owned by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, for a potential meat-processing plant.

• The council also voted yes on the renewal of the Mutual Aid Fire Agreement which states that fire departments around Lake County will come to the aid of other fire departments if needed.

“It's basically saying if I call for help, they come and help me and if they call for help I go help out,” Ronan mayor Chris Adler said.

The next meeting is scheduled for Aug. 9.