MARSHALL — At its March 2022 meeting, the Marshall City Council of Aldermen agreed to issue notices to residents reminding them to pick up their pets, as council members noticed an increase in pet waste downtown. town.
Eight months later, residents of Marshall need another booster because the problem has only gotten worse, according to the council.
Council members expressed concern about the increase in litter downtown at the Oct. 17 council meeting at City Hall.
City Administrator Forrest Gilliam said he reviewed the city’s ordinance and found the ordinance stipulates a $50 fine for residents who don’t pick up their animals.
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“There is a violation of the existing city ordinance,” Gilliam said. “It would be very low on the priority list for the police to enforce, but they have this ability to enforce it. We can send reminders on both the leash law and the ‘clean up after your pets’ law. company” with water bills to everyone who has a water bill. We can have one-on-one conversations where we think there might be issues. We can have conversations and we can get information about the locations of poop stations throughout the city.
According to Gilliam, the ordinance, “An ordinance requiring animals to be confined or kept on a leash,” has four sections and was passed by council in August 2009.
Section II of the ordinance reads: “Any person in possession of an animal is responsible for cleaning up all animal waste deposited by the dog at any location in the City of Marshall other than the property of the owner.”
Gilliam said the city will send reminders to city residents attached to their water bills.
“We’ll just sum it up to say it’s a reminder that both animals must be on leashes if they’re not on the property, and you must clean up after your pets are subject to a $50 fine. $, and we’ll quote the order,” Gilliam said.
Downtown Marshall offers three locations with plastic bags and trash cans for residents to pick up and dispose of their pet feces. All three locations are at Pocket Park across from The Sweet Monkey, near The News-Record & Sentinel and the City Fire Department.
“We don’t have anything in the middle, between the red lights, other than the (Jerry Plemmons Way location near The News-Record & Sentinel). So around Hill Street, that area and that intersection can be a place. There is also the idea of ’No good deed goes unpunished.’ If you put one somewhere, do you encourage them? I don’t necessarily know what you’re doing. You have to find the place. But making sure they’re accessible is the problem.
Board member Aileen Payne said the problem was a “big deal” near the Marshall Post Office.
According to Gilliam, the Pocket Park location has been unavailable for some time.
“It’s another three weeks, I would say, to replace him,” Gilliam said. “We can try other places and still remove it if it causes more problems.”
Board member Thomas Jablonski said another complication with finding suitable disposal locations is that a trash can cannot be placed on private property.
Gilliam said he and the city’s maintenance department, led by supervisor Jamie Chandler, will work to assess the viability of adding more disposal stations.
“We’ll keep trying and then we’ll send the information,” Gilliam said. “It will probably be an ongoing problem as long as people have dogs.”
Water and sewer reports
Extensive flooding in December 2018 and a landslide in April 2019 wreaked havoc on the city’s roads. In August 2019, council voted unanimously to approve a bill for more than $110,000 from engineering firm Vaughn & Melton to begin surveying and underground work on sections of Fortner Hollow Road , Sunset Drive and Nix Road.
“After the April (2019) flood, there was so much more damage on those roads,” Mayor Nancy Allen told The News-Record in August 2019 when she was city manager. “It amplified into a much bigger project.”
In the city’s water and sewer report released Nov. 21 by Don Byers, a Byers Environmental employee who consults on the city’s water and sewer systems, Gilliam reported that the loss of unexplained city water was 7% for the month of October 2022.
According to Gilliam, the city purchased about 17 acres of land to explore the possibility of finding an additional water well to serve the city.
“This exploration to drill and do the initial work costs $10,000,” Gilliam said. “We have in this year’s budget enough capital spending – we have about $80,000 left there – to kind of see where it goes. We haven’t added sinks, as you all know, for many years.You would alleviate the need significantly with improved water loss and line replacement.
“We actually lost a low producing well during this period which was slowly declining over the years anyway. So having another (well) would be beneficial and it is recommended in our analysis of the water we had there a year and a half ago to find another source.”
Gilliam said the water and sewer team will be doing an audit in the next few months. If the well is found to have the potential to serve the city, Gilliam will report to the city with further updates, he said.
Christmas parade
The city will host its Christmas Parade on December 10 at 11 a.m. Council member Billie Jean Haynie recommended that the city establish a “Christmas at Marshall” theme for the parade, which council unanimously approved.