Chickens, constructions and more at Council meeting

During the Public Comment portion of last Tuesday's Malta City Council meeting, Malta Mayor Shyla Jones explained why a recent request to allow City residents to keep chickens in City limits was not put on the night's agenda and why the measure wouldn't be approved.

Mayor Jones said that same request had been made to the City of Malta in the past and was denied then for a couple of reasons. The person asking for the change in policy to allow up to 4-to-6 hens (no roosters) to be kept in backyards, in covered pens, and pointed to large cities in the state — Missoula and Billings — and local towns that allow the fowl to be kept.

Mayor Jones said that when the request was made in the past, and voted down 4-0 by the council members, it was pointed out that large cities have at least one (and sometimes as many as a dozen) animal control officers while Malta has no full-time animal control officer. In the smaller towns like Dodson and Saco, Mayor Jones said there isn't an animal control officer.

"We don't have a full-time animal control officer," Mayor Jones said. "Chickens would be a big thing to be watched, because of cleanliness, and we don't have the manpower or the budget to bring somebody on to do that. "

Another reason the Council voted chickens in town down when it was first brought to them, according to Mayor Jones, was predators.

"With chickens in town, you get a bigger skunk problem, you get a badger problem, problems with raccoons because we all know those animals love to eat chickens," Mayor Jones said. "That is another reason that council had voted it down at the time. I don’t think anything has changed since three years ago."

During the Communications portion of the night's meeting, it was announced that the first day for people to announce their candidacy for cities and town is Thursday, April 20. At the final Malta City Council meeting in March, Mayor Jones said that she wouldn’t be seeking reelection. Also up for election on the Malta City Council are Ward 1 and Ward 2 members (currently held by David Rummel and Bonnie Wiederrick, respectively.)

During department reports, it was announced that the City Pool will open for the summer on either May 22 or 27 and the lifeguards are currently being interviewed. Parks and Rec's Julia Tatafu informed council that kickball season is underway and boasts 91 children playing and that adult dodgeball is drawing over 20 contestants each night the event is held.

In a water project update, Mayor Jones said up to three construction crews will be back in Malta and that the construction crews will work in such a fashion the First State Bank Car Show in June will not be affected by streets being torn up. The City, the engineering firm and the company in charge of the construction are continuing to try and figure out how many days the project will take to complete and how much money the City will have to pay out of its contingency fund.

During the Other Comments portion of the meeting, Mayor Jones asked the Council to start thinking about decisions to be made on a new swimming pool in Malta. She said that conservatively, the price tag for a new pool is around $2 million. She said that the Hi-Line Future Foundation is doing a nice job in their fundraising efforts, but to expect them to raise the entire $2 million is not realistic. She said that one alternative is to ask taxpayers to vote on funding the new pool (either the city of Malta or the entire county of Phillips.) Two council members said they would meet with the Phillips County Commissioners to discuss the possibility.