Wednesday, June 24, 2009
County Lays Egg
Posted By Tom Barberi on June 24, 2009, 1:48 PM
The Salt Lake County Council only meets on a part-time basis, and thank God for that. It is apparent that they don't have enough to do as it is. This is the only excuse there can be for the time they spent on trying to hammer out an ordinance involving county residents having a chicken in their yard.
With things being financially tight for most people, some are resorting to planting gardens for fresh veggies and keeping a chicken or two for fresh eggs.
Apparently, it was not the chickens that posed the problem for the council, but rather the coops. The rules they came up with were so restrictive that I doubt that Gitmo would pass muster. These council members collective minds came up with restrictions on building a chicken coop that would be virtually impossible to comply with. For starters, they wanted the coop to be no closer than 50 feet to any residence. So, to have a chicken you would need a lot big enough for a horse barn and tractor. The coop would have to be made out of something described as "quarter-inch hardware cloth" that would have to extend two feet underground, then bend an additional two feet away from the pen.
Just what the hell is quarter-inch hardware cloth? What ever happened to chicken wire? What is the purpose of putting a chicken inside a coop made of "kevlar," and how long do you think it will take to cook a chicken in such a coop on a 100 degree day? Then there is the matter of the 2-feet-underground construction required......are they afraid that the chickens will try and tunnel out like in The Great Escape?
Councilman Joe Hatch said, "There is no sense in us passing something that is meaningless," and Councilman David Wilde said, "Technically, almost nobody can qualify to have a chicken coop on their lot."
So, instead of just scrapping the ordinance and its really stupid conditions and starting over, they instead referred this goofy proposal to its public-works subcommittee for revision. HEY, WAIT A MINUTE.....you have already admitted your proposal doesn't make any sense at all so why compound the waste of taxpayer dollars and waste the time of people at the public-works subcommittee?
How hard can this be for crying out loud? Try this: You can have a couple of chickens in your yard; just make sure that they don't get into the street.
I had a pet chicken when I was a little kid. Peetee used to ride on the little step on the back of my tricycle as I rode it up and down the block. Nobody cared and the only thing I heard was some neighbor saying, "There goes that weird Barberi kid and his chicken." My brother was the only person who objected to Peetee, because my chicken could beat up his dog!
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