Malta Council takes first step toward 'improved animal ordinance'

The Malta City Council made a move at last Tuesday’s first meeting of November to pass a more cohesive, easier to understand Animal Ordinance for the City after nearly three months of work on the issue by the Mayor, Clerks Office, Justice of the Peace, and Council members.

“We kind of looked at the old ordinance and it seems like some things were left out,” Malta City Clerk and Recorder Lorie Bond said. “The old ordinance is about a decade old and this ordinance cleans and tightens it up. We took a look at what other cities and towns do and tried to make it easier to understand.”

Clerk Bond said that copies of the new Animal Control Ordinance are available to the public at the Malta City Hall. The proposed new ordinance — No. 453 — is seven pages long and covers animal control officers, animals running at large, dogs and cats licensing, rabies control, nuisance, and vicious animals, penalties, cruelty to animals, and animal prohibitions.

The first of two public readings of the ordinance took place at the meeting and Malta Mayor John Demarais said following a second reading at the November 27 meeting, the ordinance would move to approved in 30 days.

Under the 20 different sub-headings on the document, disturbing the peace is one of the issues addressed on the new ordinance and states “Any animals that make disturbing noise including, but not limited to, continued and repeated howling, barking, whining, or other utterances causing unreasonable annoyance or discomfort to neighbors or others in close proximity to the premises where the animal is kept or harbored. 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. shall be quiet hours.”

“I’ve read the entire ordinance a couple different times and it makes sense to me,” Mayor Demarais said of the document.

In the somewhat related news, Malta Public Works Director Jim Truelove said the City Animal Control Officer took a dog into its control after the animal allegedly bit a person. Director Truelove said that case will go in front of Phillips County Justice of Peace Gayle Stahl this week.

In other Malta Public Works news, Director Truelove said City Works Crews have been putting up Christmas decorations around town and was asked by Councilman William Hicks to look into what happened to a crosswalk that used to be located at 3rd Ave and 6th Street East. Director Truelove said he would look into the issue, but couldn’t recall a crosswalk ever being there.

During Clerk Bond’s portion of the meeting, she informed the council she had received a letter from the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) concerning a well on a local residence. Further investigation revealed the well in question was of the decorative sort and not tapped into any real water sources, thus making it a non-issue for DEQ.