Tethering ordinance gets pulled back and forth during Watkinsville City ...

The Watkinsville City Council had a full slate of members to go with a distracted Mayor Wednesday evening at the Community Center in the county seat of Oconee County.

Business was slight as 2/3rds the appearances failed to show up on time, but the remaining appearance was approved as Corey Davis received approval for his Core Blend Training and Wellness at 1410 Greensboro Highway with a testimonial on his application from recent Olympic Bronze Medal shot putter Reece Hoffa, who came back to Northeast Georgia from London with the hardware. Davis intends to train "regular people" in addition to elite athletes in the business he purchased recently. He will have early morning boot camps at 5:30 and 7:30 am as well as 9:30 am as well as zumba and yogi classes later in the day.

Those not arriving in time included Kevin Pike of Pike Gas Services at 75 Barnett Shoals Road and Bindhumol John for J&B Food Mart for a beer and win retail license at 1461 Greensboro Highway. Council member Mike Link will register his futile protest vote against it, having already made up his mind to remain in the 18th century Puritanism as the official government policy of Watkinsville. 

Link did speak about getting a handicap access ramp for Rocket Field, of which Mayor Charles Ivie had already made several inquiries and received at least one outlandish bid. The Mayor is working with the various civic groups to get it built less expensively.

Deborah Fuller became the first home owner to win the Watkinsville Beautiful Yard Award twice for her Thrasher Drive house across from Pecan Bluff in what was Samantha Purcell's final selection for the award before she leaves office. Her replacement Mike Huff was in the audience for the first time in my memory.

Fuller later spoke about the recent paving of Thrasher and how it adversely effected her driveway access and egress and that there is now a large slathering of paved asphalt as an impediment to her leaving her house. Her husband has to gun the engine of their camper to get it out, and the entire neighborhood evidently sticks their heads out their doors to witness the spectacle of the revved rendition of fossil fuel burning vehicles getting over the hump.

Someone else - me - spoke about the curb and grading at the access of Kumquat Mae on Barnett Shoals as well. The Mayor promised to take photos and confer with Chairman Davis over the access.

By far the only exchange of the evening occurred between outgoing council member Purcell and her male counterparts in regard to the Animal Control Ordinance, which needs some tweaking and was tabled. Purcell was none too happy with the lack of vote or passage, and she voted against the tabling. Council members Toby Smith, Brian Brodrick, and Henry Norman interjected their input to the overly broad language which revolves around tethering or lack thereof of dogs.

I have my dog tethered on a chain when I am home. Technically I would be in violation of the proposed ordinance if I were to run to the store or go to a restaurant or mail a letter at the post office with her on the chain. My pitbull/Georgia black dog breed is very friendly, and she would rather sniff or lick you than bite you should you saunter by my house. This is my argument against this proposed ordinance. We have a large fenced in back yard which she can fit between the slats in fence and escape even at her advanced age of at least a dozen years. Hence I keep her on a chain and often walk her around my half acre sans leash or any restraint.

My problem is with the neighbor's white short haired pointer that likes to get in my recyclables. I have asked those neighbors, whose property abuts my subdivision, to do a better job of keeping their dog penned up. They have a two story dog house with a mercury vapor light but their dog escapes and confiscates items from neighbor's decks and trash.

There is no easy cookie cutter answer to any of this.




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