Chicken scratch

The city of Osceola has a rough draft of an urban-chicken ordinance proposal, but right now, it's still a lot of chicken scratch.

During a previous Osceola City Council meeting, the council directed Ty Wheeler, city administrator/clerk, and other city staff to create a draft of an urban-chicken ordinance proposal for the city of Osceola.

An urban-chicken ordinance would allow people to keep chickens on their city property.

Wheeler presented the draft proposal at a Dec. 3 meeting.

"Specifically, there were several — seven— different criteria ... a draft ordinance cover," he said. "And, the packet in your folders tonight does just that."

What it might contain

Provisions in the draft proposal covered the maximum number of birds, not allowing roosters, having a permit fee, requiring an enclosure for the chickens, citing nuisances from odor, noise, predators, waste, storage and removal and what happens if a chicken gets loose in the neighborhood.

"Also, which I never thought of until looking through some of these, if your chicken gets out and the neighbor's dog or cat kills it, you cannot come back on the city and cite a dangerous animal claim against the dog," Wheeler said.

Work session

Councilman Glenn Schaff said he would like to have a work session on the urban-chicken ordinance proposal before any action is taken on the issue. Councilman Dr. George Fotiadis agreed with Schaff.

A work session was scheduled 7 p.m. today.

"We need to get all the dos and don'ts together. Then, we will have no backlash on it," Schaff said.

Councilman Dave Walkup said he thought Wheeler had done a wonderful job working to create an urban-chicken ordinance proposal.

"I think it's something that we can take a pencil to and we can cross out and add on," Walkup said. "It gives us some guidance and a format to look at."