Tyler Wohlers Trail grand opening set for June 21

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

Chickens may soon be coming to the land of otters. 

During its regularly scheduled meeting last week, the Ottertail City Council gave initial support to proceed with exploring the possibility of adopting a chicken ordinance in the community. What the ordinance may actually look like, how many chickens people may be able to have in town and how the poultry will be restricted have yet to be finalized. Last week’s meeting was simply vocal support by a majority of the council members to at least explore the possibility of seeing what a chicken ordinance could mean for the community.

Councilman Jerry Martin was in support of allowing a limited number of chickens in the community, as was councilwoman Elizabeth Augustus. Martin said he would like to see the city simply amend its animal ordinance to allow a handful of chickens for people within the city limits.

“I would be in favor to allow it under the animal ordinance and amend the ordinance to allow chickens,’ he said. “If in fact there is a dozen people in town and they would like to have chickens they could. And it might only be four and I don’t see where it will be a burden on the city.”

Prior to the meeting, city clerk/treasurer Amanda Thorson provided the city council with a number of sample ordinances that other communities in the region use to regulate chickens in the community. Augustus said she reviewed them all and said if no roosters are allowed in the city limits and other restrictions are put in place that there would not be much of a difference in having a few chickens to having dogs and cats in a person’s backyard. 

The council directed Thorson to put together a sample chicken ordinance for it to review and see if allowing chickens, albeit on a limited basis for each property owner, could be something that the council could support in the future.

In other news

• Heard the city-wide clean up day will be held on June 7, the household hazardous waste collection day will be June 12 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Ottertail Community Center and Safety Saturday will be Saturday, June 7.

• Heard the Wohlers Trail Dedication ceremony will be on June 21 at 11 a.m.

• Heard World Otter Day is May 28. To commemorate the day, the city will be giving away stickers at the city hall. The stickers will be provided by the Ottertail City Tourism Board.

• Heard the fire department report from Joe Ahlfs who stated the fire department has responded to six medical calls, one structure fire and two searches for gas smells in a building. The fire department was also selected by Anheuser Busch as a recipient for the Emergency Drinking Water Program. The fire department will receive a pallet of water donated as part of the program. 

• Held the first reading of the potential repeal of city ordinance 115 that deals with THC products. Earlier this year the city approved having Otter Tail County regulate cannabis and lower potency THC products, which makes the city ordinance unnecessary.