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The Babbitt city council was quizzed about residents having chickens in town at the regular meeting on Sept. 17.
Sherry Israel said she moved here five years ago from Northfield and said Babbitt “is the greatest place to be a part of.”
Israel said Northfield has a population of 30,000 people and they were allowed to keep six chickens.
“They had to be in six females, no roosters, and dozens and dozens of families even in our own neighborhood had chickens.
“They were very diligent about the way we checked in our chickens, like they would come around to anyone that had them and just look at the coop and make sure you only had six and off they went,” said Israel.
She said, “The (chickens) were such a highlight in our life. My daughter taught one to sit down on her shoulder as she would bicycle around the block. And they’re very intelligent, they would warn us up things in the area. We lived by all the local restaurant, and they would keep rats out of our yard. They were just a joy, our dogs got along great with them we called it snack time.
“We’d take all our leftovers for the day and we go and throw them out and it was feeding for both of them and the dogs all together. I had one particular her name was Snowflake and she cuddled up with me on the couch every morning as I had my coffee. Not only that, but they made our breakfast.
“It was just great opportunity to show my children who lived in a city that it’s possible to take care of yourselves.”
Israel said they had planned to have chickens in Babbitt but found out that it wasn’t allowed.
“I really feel like this is the type of community that would benefit from all elements of having chickens or allowing your friends and neighbors to have chickens as well.”
The council heard a proposal from recreation director Caitlyn Stern on setting fees for advertising on the dasher boards in the arena.
“It is a recommendation of the recreation board to set the fee for board advertising at $500 for the first year and $400 annually after. The price of installation is $330 plus staff labor, so these would be signs as you see on any hockey rink on the inside of the boards where local businesses can get their name out and show support for the building and for the community,” said Stern.
The council approved. Council member Jim Lassi brought the chicken issue to the council from the Planning Commission and said it would take a four-fifths vote to change the cur rent ordinance.
Mayor Duane Lossing said while information has been gathered on what other communities have done with this issue the council may need more input.
“It’s not necessarily what we want. It’s what the community wants and how do we get a good feel with the majority of the people in the community want about this?” said Lossing.
In the council packet there was an online poll but residents outside of Babbitt could’ve voted as well.
The unscientific poll showed 155 in favor of allowing chickens with 38 opposed.
Lassi said he’s heard from many people who were opposed to having chickens in town.
“I’ve had one person who uh voiced okay, go with it, but just about everybody else, 95, 98% are a opposed to it. They don’t want chickens in their in their backyard or the neighbor’s backyard and that’s the feedback I’ve got,” said Lassi.
Council member Glenn Anderson said he had similar responses from people and concerns raised about the possibility of bird flu.
“And who’s gonna enforce it?” said Anderson. “I’ve only had several people that actually said they were in favor of it, the rest are saying, no. We’re back to when we tried to put a pig in town, and they are not for anything like that.”
Lossing said he would like to hear from more people on this issue.
“I think in due diligence and fairness to any of these type of situations, we need to figure out a way that we can get a real temperature on what’s going on here,” said Lossing. “I would like to see this tabled and come up with a system or a plan that we can come up with more information.”
Also in the packet was a letter from Planning and Zoning member Andrea Zupancich who endorsed the plan of allowing chickens.
"There are many towns within 40 miles of us that do allow chickens,” said Zupancich. “I have not heard any of them having any problems or nuisance complaints.”
Council member Joe White raised questions about liability and what would happen if a chicken got out and the neighbor’s dog ate it.
“I’m not saying I’m for or against it, but we need to make sure that when we write this up, if we’re gonna go for it, it protects those that aren’t necessarily for it. We can’t just make a rule because some people don’t like the idea of having chickens, right? But we got to make sure we’re protecting everybody’s interests so that they don’t have to worry about it,” said White.
Council member Paul Hoheisel pointed to a proposed ordinance that would allow up to five chickens but doesn’t allow them within 15 feet of a property line.
“A lot of the properties in Babbitt in the backyard, you go 15 feet one way, 15 feet from the other way, you’ve got a 10 foot area,” said Hoheisel. “I’m not for it. I’m not against it. Right now, what I need to do is ask more people, take and look it over, study it like they said, table it for another two weeks and let me get a little bit more information from it and let me hear from you guys.
The council decided to table the issue until Oct. 15.
The council later passed a motion to send out postcards to residents to gather public input on allowing chickens in town.
In other business the council: Approved a $40 per month phone stipend to administrative assistant Kirsten Traut.
• Approved a conditional use for Lisa Poppenhagen for an AirBNB at 39 Astor and a second driveway for John Beaty at 12 Cedar.
• Heard the city is eligible for Community Development Block Grant funding that could be used for infrastructure. The first appli cation is due Oct. 15.
• Granted a request from Peter Mitchell Days to waive fees for Trunk or Treat on Oct. 13.
