/Photo by Andrew Petrie via stock.xchng
Amending a Randall town ordinance to allow 4-H participants to keep project animals at home took another step forward this week.
But the matter was not voted on because the board made an change to the amendment drafted by the town attorney.
Julie Bonogofsky appeared before the Town Board last month to ask the board to grant permission for her daughter to be able to keep two lambs on the family’s one acre property in the Arrowhead North Subdivison. The daughter is enrolled in the 4-H sheep project, in which youngsters care for and then exhibit lambs at the Kenosha County Fair. For the last two years, the daughter has been traveling to a sheep farm to care for her animals. Having the lambs at her own home would allow more time to be spent working with the animals.
The board asked the town attorney to draft an amendment to the town ordinance regarding keeping animals to allow such uses. While discussing that amendment Thursday the board discovered a limit of two animals allowed. While that limit would work for larger animals, such as the sheep that the Bonogofskys want to keep, some board members pointed out that it might not work as well for smaller animals, such as poultry or rabbits. Setting the limit at two also might be a problem in multiple children households, they said, though some board members read the ordinance as allowing two animals per child.
Speaking from the audience, Randall Municipal Judge Charles Gitzinger suggested a line be added to the amendment saying the limit could be adjusted by Town Board action in response to individual requests. The board seemed to favor something like that suggestion and postponed a vote to have the town attorney add that provision.
Are we RURAL or are we URBAN. If we want to become URBAN like ANTIOCH or RICHMOND then please do limit us. But if you like the rural flavor of the town and you want to keep enticing people to live here, then let the animals be. If it becomes a hardship then reconsider. Perhaps housing the animals should be in a structure well away from the lot lines or a distance from a neighbors residence. Also when food becomes high in price, people with an acre, 2 acres should be able to have chickens. Not to mention that some don’t want anything that isnt organic and want to be sure. The only way to be sure is to control the hen. Lambs and sheep are grass eating machines. Let the family have a natural grass cutter. They make no noise. and don’t really need the whole acre/two acres! These kinds of laws are a killer to the rural community we live in!