The first of what will be multiple public discussions about the prospect of allowing residential chickens in Platte City was held last Tuesday at City Hall. Good discussion with valid points, with the majority of public speakers in favor of allowing the presence of chickens in some regulated form. Roosters, on the other hand, seemed to be getting a thumbs down, especially from a family on Florentina Street, who says there’s a residence in the neighborhood with a hen and a rooster. “I find the rooster completely unacceptable for the city limits. The rooster is a problem and roosters are completely inappropriate for the city limits. We have had many sleepless nights over this (noise from the rooster),” the concerned citizen said. “We need some kind of enforcement so that we can enjoy the peace and quiet of our own home.”
Sounds like a reasonable request. And all of those who spoke in favor of allowing chickens presented reasonable and well thought-out comments. Comments included “children should be able to raise chickens from a backyard flock” and a request to “make Platte City a chicken-friendly place to live.” One comment was even made that their chickens have names and “are treated as pets, treated like family.” So there you go.
At a meeting later this month Platte City aldermen are expected to extend the 90-day moratorium on enforcing their current chicken code (yes, remember, by code chickens are not currently allowed in the city, the city is choosing to not enforce its code), which in effect bans the presence of chickens. The city is moving the topic of chickens from its land use code into an animal regulations part of its code, and city officials indicate discussions will continue toward some type of enforceable permanent regulation while the moratorium is in effect.
I haven’t done any individual polling of the decision makers but the vibe I’m picking up is that city officials seem to be open to allowing chickens under some form of enforceable regulations. I would be very surprised if city officials decide to allow roosters. If roosters are okayed, I’m guessing the complaints would be as loud and as consistent as the roosters, and it’s not likely city officials have an appetite for that.
Speaking of in a mood, Parkville city officials seem both surprised and unhappy that their tax proposal was waxed by voters last week. One reader in a letter to the editor at right is urging the city to put it back on the ballot. Hmm, I’m not sure how that would go. It lost 56 percent to 44 percent, and a 12% point margin is a pretty sound thrashing by political standards these days.
One would imagine any future proposal would need to be redesigned in a more fiscally conservative fashion to generate any chance at approval.
A couple more tidbits from my recent conversation with Bryan Richison, new city administrator for Platte City.
A long term vision and goal, Richison says, is to realize that with the city’s relatively low staff capacity “there only so much that you can handle at one time, we have to be cognizant of that.” Priorities will include the Hwy. 92 widening project east of I-29. “That process will get more and more complicated as the project progresses,” he said. He said as administrator he’ll need to balance the process of getting things done as well as “not burning everybody out. That’s a medium to long range challenge.”
Joe Wellington, the former police chief, still retains the title of assistant city administrator for now. Richison said Wellington is working one day a week as assistant city administrator, though Richison isn’t sure what that will look like long term. “Joe has told me if the day comes when I don’t think we need him he’s fine with that. Right now he’s concentrating on getting everything out of the Civic Center building, we still have some stuff in there,” Richison said at the time of our conversation, which was a couple of weeks ago. Another chore Wellington is undertaking in his role as assistant city administrator is to research and gather information as the city works to revamp its purchasing and personnel policies. “He is getting some input from DJ (Gehrt, interim city administrator) before DJ leaves,” Richison explained. As for himself, Richison says he is still working to get up to speed on certain topics while trying to get out in the community to meet people. “There’s a lot of information coming my way,” he says.
At top right on this page is the first of 11 installments (let’s call them frames) of a cartoon series designed on his own whim and sent to me by a Landmark reader. The series deals with the State Tax Commission’s recent order for Platte County to increase its assessed values of residential properties by 15 percent. The cartoon series opens, as you see this week, with a scene in an office of a school administrator. As the plot develops a couple of Marvel-type characters appear in later frames. The cartoon artist named these characters FrickerMan and Darth Vanover. Stay tuned for any twists and turns.
Be sure to check out Guy Speckman’s column on page 3. Speck is a licensed real estate appraiser in his real job and as such is the perfect person to comment on the State Tax Commission’s recent order to Platte County to raise appraised values by 15 percent. Check out his perspective in Ponder the Thought.
Bob Shaw, former longtime county counselor for Platte County, spends his winters in Florida on the beach and spends the warmer months here in the county doing things like singing karaoke and taking on the role of Landmark reporter at Chiefs training camp. He gets paid in compliments for both gigs. I didn’t make it to camp this year but Bob jumped into action on Monday and filed a report and a photo with your favorite newspaper (see page B-4).
Some highlights from Bob’s trip to Chiefs camp:
Monday was tight end autograph day. And by tight end we mean the football position, not anything related to human anatomy. Taylor Swift’s boyfriend is one of the Chiefs’ tight ends, as you know. “Therefore the first people through the gate made a mad dash to the correct corner” in hopes of snagging an autograph of Travis Kelce or any of the Chiefs’ tight ends. No Taylor Swift sightings. Pretty sure Tay Tay wasn’t there. If she was, our training camp reporter gonna get a compensation downgrade for not mentioning it.
Best news of Monday’s practice? “No injuries,” Bob says.
“Mahomes looked sharp. When the other quarterbacks came in the ball started hitting the ground,” Bob reports.
“Kareem Hunt looked good to me, both running and catching,” noted our Landmark reporter.
Jason Brownlee, a receiver who has been a surprise of the camp and caught a touchdown pass from Mahomes in the preseason opener Saturday, “was signing autographs and seemed nice and polite, even after getting that touchdown.” Some fans started chanting his name “and he looked a little embarrassed,” Bob reports.
(Find Foley covering chicken meetings while daydreaming of a trip to KFC. Email ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)
