Supervisors take first step with animal ordinance

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BY CHUCK VANDENBERG

PCC EDITOR

MONTROSE - Lee County Supervisors passed the first reading of an animal ordinance that will give the Lee County Sheriff more options in dealing with aggressive or "out of control" animals.

At Tuesday's regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors, an ordinance passed the first reading unanimously that gives the Sheriff's Department authority to impound the animals.

Specifically the ordinance in Title 5, Chapter 10 reads, "Any dog or companion cat running at large may be apprehended by a law enforcement officer and/or may be impounded by the sheriff..."

It also reads that is unlawful for the owner of a dog or companion cat to permit such animal to attack any person or domestic animal, or to destroy property, or to permit the animal to place any person in reasonable fear of attack or injury.

Read the complete ordinance here.

The ordinance had been tabled twice before to allow supervisors to meet with constituents and gauge the impact of the new ordinance. There also was some fine tuning of the language in the ordinance that needed to be done between Lee County Attorney Clinton Boddicker and Lee County Sheriff Stacy Weber.

Weber said he had seen the revised language from Boddicker, who was not present at the meeting, and was comfortable with the language as written in the current version in front of the board.

Supervisor Ron Fedler said he had spoken with Weber prior to the meeting and he was comfortable moving ahead and made the motion to approve the first reading.

The ordinance will require at least one more reading before being approved. Most new ordinances require three readings, however the third reading can be waived after the second reading is approved with a majority vote of the board.

In other action, the board:

• approved a motion to permit Lee County EMS to apply for a guaranteed grant for five automated compression machines called LUCAS Chest Compression Systems. The systems cost between $18,000 to $20,000 each and take over compressions on heart attack sufferers.

• approved a second reading of a rabies control ordinance

• approved a second reading of a fireworks ordinance that puts the county in line with new state regulations.

animal ordinance, board of supervisors, lee county, meeting

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