President breaks tie after village trustees ‘bawk’ at chicken ordinance

Ettrick village president Marc Baures broke the tie to move forward with developing an ordinance that could allow residents to have chickens.

The action itself won’t allow for chickens to be kept in the village, but gave the green light to develop an ordinance for the village board to consider. Board members were split on if they even needed to bother developing an ordinance, voting 3-3 before Baures’ vote.

“What’s the reason somebody would want chickens in town?” Board member Josh Hanson asked. 

After other trustees responded saying people want the eggs, Hanson questioned if there might be too much of a nuisance, particularly with the smell.

“I might own a house one day and my neighbor might have a yard full of them, then I have to smell chicken $#!%,” Hanson said.

Baures said the village could limit the number of chickens people have.

“How many chickens does it take before you smell it,” Hanson questioned. 

Trustee Pete Filla questioned if this was something residents were even pursuing. Baures said he has been approached about the subject. Trustee Dana Stoner questioned if people would want it initially before realizing they had to care for the animals.

“Who is gonna enforce it? That’s my worst nightmare,” trustee Harold Olson said.

Baures responded saying the ordinance could be enforced by a village employee, the village president or joked that the board could appoint “a chicken czar.” 

“I don’t want chickens next door to my house,” Jane Jensen, village clerk, said. “We can’t enforce our dog ordinance, how are we going to enforce a chicken ordinance?”

Baures responded saying the village should start enforcing its dog ordinance.

“Not having something because we’re not doing something else isn’t the problem,” Baures said. “Other communities allow chickens and other communities are not having some sort of issue.”

Molstad said he thinks people should have the opportunity to have chickens, but that it was important to have an ordinance set. Baures agreed saying there had to be a guideline of what an ordinance would look like before the idea is presented to the public. At that point, trustees are hoping to get public input to determine if the village should allow chickens.

“We could have a chicken referendum,” Filla joked. 

“That would be so Wisconsin,” Baures responded. 

Molstad motioned to develop guidelines to consider prior to vote on whether or not to allow chickens. His motion received support from Stoner and Kaylee Waldvogel while Olson, Filla and Hanson voted against it.