Sanford, NC family fined $1300 day for chickens!Update She Found US!!!

[emandmikey]

Thanks Seachick! Yes, I have submitted a packet of information to each of the Commissioners and the Mayor about a week ago. It included the FAQ sheet you had shared with me earlier, of course I added some things and changed it to reflect our town. They will have had PLENTY of time to review the information before they discuss the issue on Tuesday. I would love to share with everyone here the packet of info - I'm trying to figure out how I can get the word document online so others could see it. I don't want to put the entire thing onto my blog right now...
Check the blog for the latest on the progress here in Wake Forest! Em

 

[Reinbeau]

Alex, print it to a .pdf and put a link to it on your blog. If you need help doing that, pm me.

 

[emandmikey]

Just to get the word out - our meeting last night was a success! I did end up speaking, and boy was I nervous! The Wake Forest Board of Commissioners were unanimously in favor of approving the amendments I presented to them, and decided to put it to a public hearing, and vote on the issue formally at the next meeting (in September)! I am so excited about this - but hope that there won't be anyone who shows up in opposition to the amendments at that time - no one did at this meeting! Anyway, thanks for everyone's support here, it's really great to have a forum of people to come to for knowledge and support!

 

[suebee]

Way to go Em! Go get'um!!

 

[shay20]

Just another way for government to make money, They see the popularity in chick farms so now they'll come up with a reason to make money off of them, next we will be paying taxes on each chicken or roo. The government is mad we have our own eggs.

 

[Robin'sBrood]

Em, was it you that I saw on NBC17 night before last?

 

[emandmikey]

Hen mama - yep... that was me! When did the story run? I think it was on after the olympics - so not many people saw it!

 

[emandmikey]

An update on Wake Forest:

I attended the Commissioner's Work Session last night, and left the meeting a little disappointed.

At their last meeting, two weeks ago, the Commissioners asked some staffers to work on drafting an amended ordinance to be presented at this work session for review and consideration for a public hearing. Apparently the duty was delegated to Bill Summers, one of the town planners, who is in charge of issuing the livestock permits currently. He very simply stated, after snickering a little bit about how little he knew of the issue, that he suggested that the simplest change would be to amend the current ordinance to omit hens numbering fewer than five (5). In other words, you would not need a permit from the town to keep 5 or less hens in the town limits. If you wanted more than 5, you would need to submit to the current permitting process for livestock.

Now... this is a step forward... keeping hens would be allowed without a permit - that's great! But in my opinion the number 5 is too low! I had suggested that they allow 20 because of the diminished egg production once the animal gets to a certain age.... this guy wasn't taking that into consideration at all. I wonder if he's read the information I put together for the Commissioners... maybe I should send it to him...

Anyway - that's basically what transpired about chickens at the meeting tonight. I stayed to the end, and spoke with one of the Commissioners, Chris Kaeberlein, who also would like to see the number a little bit higher. He suggested 10. Really, that would be better, but larger families would still be out of luck if it were capped at that number. I am emailing all of the Commissioners tonight about the issue... and I hope they'll support a higher number when the time to vote comes around.

The Wake Weekly will be doing a story about the meeting later this week (Thursday) and I wouldn't be surprised to see something about it in the Wake Forest Gazette too. I just hope all of our local supporters will come out on September 16th to show that they want this ordinance changed with a reasonable amount of hens allowed.

 

[Alexcritter]

Hey all. I was on the local radio this week. check out this podcast of it. Listen to the 11/12 episode and que in at about 45 minutes.

http://therant905.wordpress.com/

Also, congrats to Wake Forest.

I figured out my blog and opened it up so that people can leave comments without having to join. I would appreciate comments as that keeps us relevant.

savethesanfordcitychickens.blogspot.com

 

[terri9630]

I know this thread is old but is there a clause about kids keeping animals for 4-H? We have restrictions on pigs, sheep and cattle unless they are a childs school project.