Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties
Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties
Council votes unanimously on fowl matter
Everly Mayor Ron Thompson shares his thoughts during discussion about chickens at Monday's council meeting.
Ultimately, the council determined that the amount of negative comments they received about urban chickens outweighed comments from residents who were in favor of them.
Robins, cardinals, blue jays and finches will be the only birds making their way to Everly anytime soon.
The city council on Monday voted unanimously to uphold current rules that ban laying hens and other poultry from town. The move came a month after resident Janice Nielsen approached the group about changing rules to allow small flocks of laying hens in town.
"Chickens are done now," Mayor Ron Thompson said after the vote.
The decision came following extensive research by Thompson and the council. A special meeting was held last week by the city council's chicken committee to hear input from residents, which garnered input from people both for and against changing the rules.
While feedback at the meeting last week was overwhelmingly in favor of allowing chickens in town, Council Member Tara Patrick said a majority of the feedback she received was against chickens. Residents who spoke to her were worried about smell, more predators in town and disease, and they were also worried the city lacked the resources to enforce rules.
Those who supported urban chickens previously noted they provide their owners with an independent food source, are great 4-H projects for children, and help keep insect populations down. Nielsen, who spoke to the council on two separate occasions, explained the cost of raising chickens correctly is prohibitive to individuals who may want to buy a few birds on a whim, and she didn't think the animals would cause much fuss if the council were to change its ordinance.
Ultimately, though, the council wasn't swayed enough to change the rules. Citing overwhelming feedback to keep rules as-is, the council voted to uphold the current ordinance with little fanfare – no members of the public were in attendance to speak on the matter.
"I think everyone kind of saw the writing on the wall after last week's meeting about where we were leaning on this," Thompson said.
The latest effort to bring fowl into town was the second attempt by residents in three years. The council briefly discussed the matter in 2020; however, members came to the same conclusion as they did Monday.
