Request to raise chickens ruffles feathers in Kootenai

KOOTENAI - No one has cried foul and council members have not flocked to take sides, as this small city along Highway 200 ponders poultry.

For the past month, ever since Kootenai resident Chrissi Vergoglini asked the City Council if she could raise chickens on her small city lot on Hope Street, council members have scrambled to address the issue.

Answers, so far, have been scarce as hen's teeth.

Council members voiced concerns that chickens would attract rodents and predators.

Others think it's a good idea, and still others think allowing backyard coops will open a can of worms.

"I think the council has mixed feelings," Kootenai Mayor Margaret Mjelde said.

Down the road in Ponderay, the city has an ordinance against farm animals that includes chickens.

The prohibition stems from an incident years ago, according to a former council member, when a bunch of domestic rabbits escaped in Ponderay. Their offspring had the run of town for a time, causing a nuisance until Ponderay City Council dropped the ax with a ban on farm animals.

A few miles to the south, Sandpoint has its own ordinance that does not preclude poultry.

Sandpoint's ordinance only prohibits chickens raised for commercial purposes in residential areas. There is also a law against animals that bark, cry, whistle or crow too loudly. Hence, no roosters.

Lastly, a foul-smell ordinance targets animals responsible for olfactory overload.

But, hens, if their pens are kept clean, are allowed.

Vergoglini insists her birds, if she is allowed to raise them, will be well mannered, fair smelling and quiet egg producers.

"I just asked if they could pass an ordinance that allows chickens to be raised, no roosters, for the purpose of eggs," Vergoglini said.

Kootenai is not alone in its deliberations over whether hens should be allowed in residential areas.

The issue has been on council agendas in much larger cities for years.

From Ottawa to Chicago and Atlanta, to the farm belt city of Madison, Wis., city officials have voted on backyard flocks.

Madison city-dwellers are allowed to have four hens. Their coops must be 25 feet from neighboring property and outside butchering is prohibited.

Kootenai council member Erik Brubaker doesn't object to the idea of having hens in town.

Some residents already have them, he said.

"Ever since $4 gas, there has been a localization of food movement nationally," Brubaker said. "I think it resonates with a lot of people."

Council members were concerned that chickens might draw predators such as coyotes and skunks, but Vergoglini said her hens will be in a fenced enclosure, and secured in a covered coop.

The city already has predators including hawks, she said, and skunks and raccoons are drawn to compost piles, dog and cat food as well as garbage cans.

Council member David Sundquist said the city has an ordinance against chickens in town, although others at the city were not sure if an ordinance existed, or how to interpret the existing laws regarding livestock.

He and his peers will continue to research the issue.

"We'll feel out other people in town," he said. "There are probably as many who think it's not such a hot idea, as there are as many who said it would be a good idea."