Manfre

Town Council and Hens - Part 2

Town Council and Hens Part 1

The meeting did not turn out in our favor. The council voted 4-3, in favor of doing nothing. They essentially stated that they would not vote to allow hens regardless of what a staff committee gave as a recommendation. It’s good to know that some of the council members are very close minded. Better to find this out on a not so critical issue.

Voted to investigate further:

• Gale Adcock, District “D” Representative
• Jennifer Robinson, District “A” Representative

• Julie Aberg Robison, Mayor Pro Tem, “At-Large” Representative

Voted to do nothing:

• Harold Weinbrecht – mayor
• Jack Smith, District “C” Representative
• Don Frantz, District “B” Representative

• Ervin Portman, “At-Large” Representative

Alissa spoke amazingly well during the 3 minute “public speaks out” portion of the meeting. She spoke clearly and countered all of the major concerns raised prior to the meeting. She even managed to fit it all in with a few seconds to spare. The meeting went on for several more hours (5-6) before they arrived at the vote to investigate this further. That is when a few of the council members showed that they are unprofessional and disregard community feedback.

Don Frantz was the rudest with his comment “quite frankly the only chicken I want to see is in the frozen-food section of the grocery store or on a plate right in front of me, because it’s 12:30 [a.m.] and I’m starving.” He also clearly stated that he would disregard any staff recommendations and vote against allowing chickens, if the vote was ever brought before the council. If a person is physically or mentally unable (or willing) to sit through a long meeting required of the position, they should step down.

We left the meeting very annoyed, yet motivated. I proceeded to set up CaryChickens.com as an information resource and a mailing list to help organize all of the citizens in Cary who want hens. We received many emails in support, have had quite a few people contact us through the new website and new subscribers to the mailing list. We have not started a petition yet, but that will not be too far off.

A request for public records submitted to the town clerk turned out to be very enlightening. Of the emails that the council turned over (still waiting on Jennifer Robinson), there were 11 emails in favor and 4 against. All of the council members did not turn over every email on the topic. We know this because a few individuals had CC’d us with either the email they sent to the council members or with the responses. I view this lack of disclosure as a serious issue and I will push to get it resolved.

The record request also showed that Mayor Harold Weinbrecht is strongly opposed to allowing chickens. He forwarded all of the negative feedback to the other council members, but none of the emails that were pro-chicken. Between this “censorship” and the lack of disclosure to the public records request, I will now have to educate the public to only email council@townofcary.org and CC Sue Rowland, the town clerk. Emailing a council member directly has shown to be a subjective void.

Other sites/stories related to the council meeting

• Cary Town Council Agenda & Minutes – July 24th 2008
• Cary Town Council Meeting Video – July 24th 2008
• The News & Observer – Cary chickens out of allowing poultry
• WRAL – Proposal to own chickens in Cary plucked
• BackyardChickens.com Forum – Cary Chicken Ban
• Mayor Harold Weinbrecht’s Journal: July 26th 2008

• Don Frantz’s Journal – Week in Review 7/20/08 – 7/26/08

Town Council and Hens - Part 1

As mentioned in a previous entry, Chickens in Cary, my wife and I want to raise hens as pets. Tomorrow, the council will decide one of three options.

• Refer the request to the appropriate committee meeting, at which time a staff report with staff recommendation will be prepared
• Refer the request to a future council meeting, at which time a staff report with staff recommendation will be prepared

• Decide not to pursue the council initiated request

I’m hoping that they choose the first one. By the meeting tomorrow, they should receive about 5-10 more emails/calls in support of hens. I went around the neighborhood to pass out flyers. Mike helped a lot by having his daughter deliver a bunch of the flyers to various families he knows that want hens.

Neighbors and Honey

Alissa and I took ella on a very short walk today. We walked around the block and saw a house with a vegetable garden that is larger than ours, some fruit trees and honey bee boxes. That explains why we’ve had so many honey bees in our garden. We get the benefits without worrying about getting stung.

I rang their door bell to introduce myself to Michael and Singrid. I’m a lot more outgoing than Alissa. So much for CompSci people being introverted. It turns out that they looked in to getting chickens, but stopped once they discovered the ban.

Chickens in Cary

Alissa and I want to keep a few hens as pets. The only hurdle is that we live in Cary, NC. We didn’t realize just how extensive the ordinances are in this town. It is a gorgeous place to live, lots of local shopping, and has a mindset towards maintaining a lot of green space.

We contacted the town council to get the ball rolling towards allowing hens within city limits. We are looking to have at most 10 hens (no roosters) on our almost acre lot.

Benefits of Chickens

• They eat ticks and other insects. Last week, I pulled a female lone star tick off my ass (literally)
• They eat poison ivy and kudzu
• Cheaper organic free range eggs. Last check they were about $5/dozen at trader joe’s
• Free range eggs are healthier. Less cholesterol, more omega-3, and other nutrients
• Chicken manure is a great fertilizer.
• Their scratching helps till the soil.
• Reduces our carbon footprint

• Less fuel is needed to transport eggs and fertilizer that we would stop purchasing.

The town council emails are public record and this is how WRAL found out about it and contacted us for an interview. The story (with video) by Renee Chou, Cary to look at relaxing chicken ban. It was a bit disappointing to have a 15 minute interview chopped down to 1.5 sentences, but I’m really happy that the story made the news. The comments on the story have mixed reactions from people in the area.

Please vote for the story to keep it as a hot GoLo topic! For some reason, it resets the count at midnight every day.

Praying Mantis

A little under 2 weeks ago, Alissa and I purchased a container with 2 Praying Mantis “eggs”. Each capable of spawning ~200 little ferocious insect killing machines! Well, they hatched sometime in the past 24 hours, while still in their cardboard container. A small note about Praying Mantis, they eat meat and will cannibalize their own if needed. Luckily, I checked the container today with the intent of putting one of the eggs out in the garden. Immediately after lifting off the top, a couple dozen little, brown mantis babies swarmed out on to the kitchen counter. I quickly recovered it and moved it outside to dump them in the garden. Alissa and I then played the fun game of catch the baby mantis. They were all shorter than an inch, can move quickly and they can even jump. We managed to recatch all of them and relocate them to the corn field. There may be a few still roaming the kitchen looking for something to eat. I’m not worried since all of the good beef is frozen and my cats like hunting bugs that jump.