COAL TOWNSHIP - Chickens of the township, beware: One month from today, your goose is cooked.
Township ordinance banning residents from owning select farm and wild animals as pets took effect in March. Owners were given 90 days to find a new home for their soon-to-be-exiled animals.
The full ban kicks in June 7 and that means any chickens or goats or monkeys - yes, monkeys - will be kicked out of the municipality.
There have been jokes about chicken owners hosting barbecues as a send-off for their feathered friends but, all kidding aside, the ban has riled some residents who feel wronged by an ordinance they believe to be unfair.
"They're no problem," said Barbara Tanner, of 1210 W. Nelson St., as her two hens roamed her backyard Sunday afternoon. "They're just chickens."
According to the 2010 Census, there were nearly 8,000 people living in residential sections of Coal Township. When township commissioners voted in March to approve an extended ban on animals, an official said about one dozen residents were raising chickens in residential zones - half of whom had been subject to complaints.
The ordinance is not subject to a grandfather clause, which only applies to zoning ordinances. It also allows for no exceptions. Whether in a populous area with neighbors just steps away or in sections of the township where it would take a short walk to reach the next neighbor, the ban is the same.
Functional pets
Janine Woodley has raised chickens the past two years at 937-939 W. Spruce St., where her backyard faces the township garage.
The smell from her coop was mild on Sunday afternoon, even without it having been yet cleaned of excrement. She and her husband, John Tinley Jr., both acknowledged the coop can smell strongly when it rains. But they clean it regularly, they say, and use wood chips beneath the coop to cut down on the scent.
The fowl are functional to the couple - they lay a dozen eggs combined every three days, and the excrement is used in compost - but are also considered pets.
When they're running low on feed, or when they're feeling generous, the hens are given popcorn, vegetable scraps from the garden or even leftover potatoes from the dinner table.
The ordinance, Woodley says, is quite specific for the few residents who own chickens. She wonders, too, if township commissioners could one day expand the animal ban to include more popular pets like cats and dogs.
Either way, she believes she has a right to have chickens in her backyard if she so pleases.
"I could buy eggs. It'd be a lot less of a mess," she said, nodding toward the coop. "But it's a labor of love. This is my piece of the Earth."
Neighbors' thoughts
Woodley says a select few of her neighbors have taken issue with the hens from time to time.
Three of her neighbors who spoke separately Sunday with The News-Item said they had no problem with the chickens.
"If they want to have chickens, let them," said Barbara Filarski, of 915 W. Spruce St.
Of the muffled clucking the hens make in the morning, she said, "I kind of like it."
Victor Colangelo, of 945 W. Spruce St., lives two doors away. He doesn't mind the chickens at all. He can't smell them and they're not loud, he said.
A larger problem on his block and as a whole across the township, he said, is that of blighted properties as well as absentee landlords and their untidy tenants.
Sue Zarski, of 911 W. Spruce St., also said the chickens are no bother. A greater burden to her, she said, is a vacated property on her block that has high grass and has become home to wild animals - squirrels and skunks and the like that are pets to no one.
In fact, there were three backyards in the 900 block of West Spruce Street that on Sunday had grass that was quite high - itself a violation of ordinance.
Isn't hopeful
Woodley is hopeful the township commissioners would change their mind and overturn the ban at their next meeting, to be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at the municipal building at 805 W. Lynn St.
Tanner isn't as hopeful. She believes the commissioners are set on upholding the ban.
"Not after hearing what they said at that meeting," she said of comments made by township officials at the March meeting.
Tanner's two hens have upscale living quarters for city chickens - a $1,200 wooden shed with a hatch to the outdoors where there is a enclosed space for the fowl to roam.
Her son, Josh, bought the hens as a retirement gift last year.
"When I retired, I thought, 'Well, that would be a nice kind of pet,' " she said.
She lets the chickens out for walks in the yard, which also allows her to get some fresh air. She finds the experience relaxing.
"I like that they eat the bugs," she added.
Tanner can't understand why, if only a dozen people own chickens, the code or police departments couldn't simply take action against owners who don't clean their chickens' coops or allow them to run at large.
Her son wonders if the township would even be able to enforce this new ordinance.
"That's the thing. There are so many codes that are not enforced and now they're going to add another," Josh said, coincidentally pointing out that as he spoke, two all-terrain vehicles drove down Nelson Street, a traffic violation.