Marion County Board Chair Debbie Smith wants to move forward on limited ordinances to deal with repeat violations of dogs running at large as well as to enforce burning of items prohibited by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Both issues came up for discussion at Wednesday night’s Community Relations Committee meeting.
Animal Control Officer Ken Ferguson would like to be able to issue tickets for those with multiple complaints of allowing dogs to run at large. He anticipates only writing around five tickets a year.
Smith wants to work with State’s Attorney Tim Hudspeth in coming up with a ticket that would have a first offense penalty of a $100 fine that could be paid without a mandatory court appearance.
“Past offenders of 3 or 4 or 5 times are consistent every time. So this is all he’s trying to do is enforce it because the word by mouth telling them it’s against the law and making sure they are within their property line and it’s just a tap on the hand and the people aren’t listening. So we need to do something to hopefully reinforce that to get their attention and it may not. But it’s worth a try because they are repetitive.”
Smith also plans to talk to other counties and have a more formal proposed ordinance by the next meeting with hopes of something being in place by April 1st. Smith also reintroduced the need to have some control over open burning outside of municipal boundaries.
“I think burning should be prohibited within reference to the county outside city limits of vehicle tires, shingles, and all items prohibited by the EPA like mattresses, furniture, and clothing. I think that we need to have that burning ordinance so these things aren’t done right across the street from our city limits. But this is something the board will have to figure out and I don’t know if it’s legal.”
Committee Chair Bill Henson questioned Smith if she wanted the ordinance for areas just outside cities or the entire county and she replied her proposal would be for all areas of the county. Smith notes the board may not want to pursue the issue, but she says they have had complaints about the burning and feels it should be investigated. She plans to ask the State’s Attorney to explore the idea of developing such an ordinance to be brought back to the board.
The committee was introduced to Troy Reid of the Iuka area who is interested in being appointed to the county board to replace the late Erwin Hahn who passed away last month after serving on the board for 18 years. Reid told the committee he is a Reflexologist with an office in Centralia, is married, has two children, and is an elder in his church, but has never held a government position. Reid is expected
to be sworn in at the full county board meeting next Tuesday night.
