Dog Attack Urges Ordinance Change
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ Juanita Keith of Elkville attended Thursday's Elkville Village Board meeting angry over a fight that her 8 month pregnant daughter had... with a dog.
Allegedly her daughter and another boy were walking when a neighbor's dog attacked her. The dog continued until the boy kicked the dog off. The daughter was not injured in the attack but doctor's have suggested she do little moving to protect the child.
After an argument at the mayor's house, a stressful 911 call, and the dog allegedly disappearing, Keith's issue to the board was that the ordinance was not strict enough. Her suggestion was an immediate fine to those that do not follow the leash law.
City Attorney Timothy Daniels mentioned that even current fines and procedures do little to permanently fix the problem. Dogs get taken away, but as long as the fine is paid the owner can get the dog back.
While revisions were made to the dog ordinance to update the language, further changes are being considered by the board but were not acted on.
Other items covered at the meeting...
There was a discussion between the board and a few citizens about the installment of speed bumps in an alley near the church on Hwy. 51 involving Roger Buyan and Marvin Baine. The issue revolved around one of the bumps being higher than the other and making it hard for Baine to leave the alley in that direction and wanted the bumps removed. Buyan argued that the speed bumps were necessary to stop the amount of people that speed down the alley. Discussion ended with an informal agreement that allowed the speed bumps to stay.
Loretta Maines of Elkville pointed out that is was hard to hear the board during the meetings and suggested that the board invest in a sound system. The board agreed to look into the matter.
Tabled the ordinance taking action on adding stop signs to the city roads.
Scheduled the Village Budget meetings for June 4, at 6:30, just before the regularly scheduled board meeting.
Passed an ordinance that allowed the city to charge the owners of the equipment the cost of deploying pump trucks, haz-mat, fire trucks, etc., of any chemical spill or relative spill that takes place so that the city will not be left with the cost if such an event were to take place.
After the recent storm several dilapidated houses were turned in to the health department for action.
It was reported that during the storm outage that the generator at the sewage plant died and was down for three days. For three days work a generator repair person charged the city $8,000, $5,000 of which was labor. The board was shocked at the cost for three days work of a single person.
Tom Horton sent his regards in a letter to the board for his appreciation to the fire department in their fact action to keep the town safe and get it cleaned up.