Tethered dogs still on agenda

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

— Tethering of dogs may yet become illegal within Gentry’s city limits if discussion at the Jan. 20 meeting of the Property and Code Enforcement Committee is any indication of council views on the issue.

Though the council failed to pass an ordinance which would have banned unattended tethering of dogs within the city and tabled a second ordinance dealing with pen size for keeping of dogs - in part because the city’s pound may not have met the new standard - the topic was again discussed at the committee meeting, with the suggestion made that the city first needed to improve its facilities before requiring residents to provide kennels of a certain minimum size for dogs kept outdoors. Also mentioned was the possibility of the city contracting with another agency for animal holding facilities. Some suggested that, since the city pound was only a temporary holding facility, it should not have to meet proposed pen-size requirements of 50 square feet per animal for small dogs under 20 pounds, 100 square feet for dogs up to 100 pounds, and 150 square feet for dogs over 100 pounds.

“It’s simple,” said councilwoman Janice Arnold. “No tethering. The whole purpose is to protect the animal and to protect people from tethered animals,” she said, indicating that the city needs to ban all unattended tethering of dogs even if it does notpass an ordinance regarding pen sizes for animals kept outdoors.

Gentry public works supervisor David McNair also mentioned concerns with the city’s animal pound being on the grounds of the city wastewater treatment plant and possibly being included in plant inspections.

“The EPA inspects the wastewater treatment plant and sees the dog pound there,” McNair said. “We need to separate it from the wastewater treatment plant, have a new gate and fence it off, so they know it’s separate,” McNair said.

For the time being, more study and research is going into how to deal with tethered dogs and kennel sizes, but it’s likely the matter will soon be back before the fullcouncil with a request - at least from some - to ban all unattended tethering of dogs within the city.

Also discussed at the meeting was the creation of a computerized database for code violation reports so that violations - whether of the building code or of property maintenance issues - don’t “fall through the cracks.” The database would be used by city council members and code enforcement officials to make sure appropriate and timely steps are taken to clean up and correct violations.

The period of time - six months - property owners are allowed to either correct or demolish and remove buildings in violation of city building code was discussed, with some suggesting the time period be shortened and others saying that shortening the time could place undue burden on some property owners because of the expense involved to correct or remove building violations.

Over the next few months, the committee intends to spend time researching city code and possibly recommending changes which would allow property owners to remodel and renovate older homes and structures which do not meet current ground clearance and crawl space requirements. The matter was referred to the committee by the city council on Monday.

Community, Pages 8 on 02/03/2010