Mentone Considers Ordinances On Chickens And Park Hours
Posted
Jackie Gorski-
MENTONE – Ordinances regarding residents owning chickens in town limits and people at the park after hours were topics of discussion at the Mentone Town Council meeting Wednesday.
Resident Hannah Beliles said she looked over the South Bend guidelines for chickens and presented those guidelines to the Council, saying they could strike down any of the guidelines and simplify them.
Beliles has brought the topic to the Council before with the first time being in June 2020. At that time, Council President Jill Gross said it might be an issue the Council may have to have open for a while.
Wednesday, Beliles said some of the things previously talked about before were a possible six chicken limit and no roosters being allowed. She suggested distance between coops and coop size requirements and a possible permit.
Gross asked if Beliles had done any research on chicken ordinances in small towns in the area. Beliles said she mostly researched South Bend and a little bit into Indianapolis’ ordinance. She said in some small towns, it’s harder to look up ordinances.
Gross said it was her suggestion the Council take it under consideration and research area ordinances.
Town attorney Andrew Grossnickle asked if Beliles was aware of any towns in the area that had chicken ordinances. Gross said she believed one of the area towns was taking the issue under advisement. Councilwoman Shelly Krueger said the issue of keeping chickens in town was growing.
Gross asked if the bird flu was still an issue. Krueger said there was an issue in Goshen, but the birds were checked and everything was fine. Councilman Tim Croy said Milford has an issue with it with ducks.
No decision was made on a chicken ordinance Wednesday.
In other business, Grossnickle said Town Marshal Jim Eads reached out to him a couple weeks ago about some recent issues of some people loitering in the park area after the park closed. Gross said she also had complaints on the same issue. Grossnickle said both he and Eads didn’t see anything in regards to “curfews” in the parks.
Eads said the park sign does say the park is closed from dusk to dawn, but there’s no ordinance behind that. The question he had is if the police department had the legal right to identify any loiterers without an ordinance that states people can’t be at the park after hours. Grossnickle said he guessed the police department could say the loiterers were trespassing.
Grossnickle did look at examples of ordinances from other cities. One example he brought up was Warsaw’s, which he said is detailed and has provisions regarding things like pets and alcohol.
Krueger asked if an ordinance was put in place, could Eads pick up people and fine them. Eads said anything the police department does on the town’s ordinances are “a civil-type thing.” Eads said he’s not opposed to having a fine attached to the ordinance. He said if there is a fine with the ordinance, the fine doesn’t have to be big, suggesting something like $25. However, the main thing he wanted to be able to do is ask people for identification and have some teeth behind it.
Krueger also asked how the dusk to dawn closure will be enforced. Eads suggested possibly changing closing time of the park from sunset to sunrise since that information could be looked up.
Grossnickle said if the Council wanted him to explore writing a draft of an ordinance, he can do that. Gross said she thinks the Council needs to give Eads as much jurisdiction as possible.
Also, the Council:
• Approved a bid for $55,012 from Peerless Midwest for a water well communicator.
• Heard from Croy that spring cleanup went well. Eads said there are some TVs still on people’s curbs. Residents can take electronics to the recycling center in Warsaw.
