City needs to chicken-out of chicken issue
By Jim Galewski | Just Jim

The Winona City Council members should step back, shake their shoes off and walk away from this chicken ordinance.

Winona seldom makes the national news, but the recent bridge closure made headlines and news editors around the country can’t help but run the story about this quiet little town and its chicken controversy.
Worse yet, the more the council studies the issue, the further it gets from being resolved. Now the council wants to let us have fewer than 12 hens and no roosters. That’s blatant discrimination. We have a sign right at the entrance of the city on Huff Street that says we are building an all-inclusive community. Now we are saying that “boy” chickens aren’t welcome.

You won’t need a permit to have the 12 chickens, but you can’t eat them. What else do you do with a chicken? If a family that decides to keep 12 chickens has chicken for dinner, they better have a receipt to prove dinner didn’t come from the backyard.

And just how will the city enforce the new chicken ordinance? Will the city inspection department get the job? Will it be animal control’s headache? Or will we have our own chicken police?

Even council members had a tough time keeping a straight face when discussing the subject. It might not be so funny when residents hear about the new ordinance. Ordinances are meant to be broken. If the council makes a law about the number of chickens a resident can own, there’s bound to be someone who will stretch the law. If you aren’t allowed to slaughter the chicken what happens if the family grows? Will the city come and put the extra chicken to sleep?

I’m not sure if you can walk your chicken. Since there are no roosters allowed, I guess we won’t have to worry about cockfights. The little I know about chickens is that hens can get pretty feisty too. I don’t want to have to run away from a territorial chicken when I am out for a walk.

I just hope when the chicken owners go outside the city to slaughter their chickens, they clean up after themselves. I’d hate to see chicken heads and entrails scattered just outside the city limits, because you can’t kill a chicken in the city.

I’m sure the council thinks the chicken ordinance will establish order in our fowl community. I would expect news editors to jump all over the story and the chicken owners to ignore it.

Steamroller thief dies and parents sue

In a small town of Blaine, Wash., an 18 year-old man and two 17 year-old accomplices entered a construction site and started up a steamroller.

The 18-year-old Justin Wydur tried to drive the steam-roller up a dirt pile and was killed when it flipped over on top of him. Police say alcohol may have been involved.

This tragedy is compounded by the parents’ hopes to sue the construction company because the construction site wasn’t fenced in and the keys to the steamroller were left in it.

Defending their son’s actions, Ed and Rachel Wydur said it was a moment of bad judgment.

“They were just boys out looking to have a good time. Not causing trouble, not

vandalizing things,” said Rachel.

I feel for the parents’ tragic loss, but their son was making trouble. He got himself killed and the police should be considering the laws these teenagers broke in the name of a good time.

Should Walz be in charge of our money?

In a story in the Rochester Post Bulletin, freshman U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, DFL-Mankato, reported overall debt of between $225,005 and $515,000. His credit card debt is $75,003 to $120,000. His mortgage and credit line tied to his Mankato home and an attached rental unit is between $150,002 and $350,000.

In Walz defense, he said he built the debt when he took a year off to run for Congress.

Now he’s a lawmaker and is spending our money. It would appear Walz’s attitude about borrowing money will serve him well as he tries to fix this country’s financial mess.

Half a pothole is better than one

I didn’t bother to find out why this pothole along County Road 17 was only half filled.

The truck patching the road may have simply run out of material. I suppose the crew stopped filling the hole when it got to quitting time. Maybe the hole is located right on the city/county jurisdiction line?

There have to be dozens of answers, but I’ll bet there isn’t a good one.

Galewski is the retired editor and Opinion page editor of the Winona Daily News. His views don’t necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper. If you have an idea or tip about a Winona issue, call Jim at (507) 452-3960. His e-mail is editor@luminet.net.

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