By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
With a 4-3 vote, the Great Bend City Council decided to continue to ban the harboring of chickens within city limits. Following a citizen, living on Broadway Avenue, addressing the governing body in May about a police officer telling her she needed to remove your backyard chickens, the council discussed the topic as an official agenda item Monday night.
RELATED STORY: Great Bend council to decide if chickens are allowed in town
Those against the idea of
chickens within city limits argued that Animal Control does not want to take on
the responsibility of potential chicken violations, the city’s struggle to
enforce current abatements and the police department staff being utilized for
chicken-related violations. Councilmembers Cory Urban, Jolene Biggs, Lindsey Krom-Craven and Natalie Towns voted in favor of the chicken ban. Krom-Craven stated she has
heard from more constituents against the allowance of chickens.
"I think by the time you got something that would appease the majority, the people that want them aren't going to want to do it because there are going to be so many rules, restrictions and regulations," said Krom-Craven. "I fully believe when you choose to live in a city, you choose city life. If there are things you want that are country life, you choose country life."
The Golden Belt Humane Society, administering the city’s animal control
service, wrote a statement against legalizing chickens within city limits.
Humane Society Director Heather Acheson mentioned concerns with receiving
complaints about chickens running at large, determining ownership of impounded
chickens, noise complaints and requirements to clean up coupes or enclosures.
Acheson said in a two-year span from Jan. 2021 to Dec. 2022, animal
control received 33 complaints regarding chickens.
"Two of those were noncompliant and we issued citations," said Acheson. "Five of them we were unable to locate. Twenty were left notes and verbal warnings and those people ended up removing the chickens from the city. There were six that we impounded and ended up re-homing. There is enforcement going...it just may be where people are not getting cited all the time."
With a full crowd on hand, discussion on the topic was limited to the city
council. Previously, residents stated the current city ordinance is unclear if
chickens are permitted. City Attorney Allen Glendenning created an ordinance
that was approved that clarifies that harboring chickens is not allowed within
city limits.
Listen below to the entire discussion regarding the continuance of banning chickens within city limits at the Monday, June 5, 2023 Great Bend City Council meeting.