By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

With a unanimous vote, the South Portland City Council approved an
ordinance that will “give peeps a chance.” The ordinance approved at a
Sept. 5 council meeting allows residents to keep up to six hens for
personal use.

In May, 10-year-old Olivia Collins started a campaign to allow backyard
hens in the city. Collins and her parents, Stacey and Neil, spent the
summer gathering signatures of support and working with city officials
to develop an ordinance that would lift the city’s ban on the keeping
of fowl in residential districts.  

With passage of the ordinance, residents are required to obtain an
annual $25 permit and a one-time $25 building permit for the henhouse
beginning Sept. 25, with no more than 20 issued in the first year. In
each subsequent year, 20 more permits may be issued beyond any renewal
permits. The code enforcement officer will be charged with reporting to
the council about the program’s progress by Dec. 31, 2008.

In other business, with a vote of 6-1, the council authorized Mayor
Claude Morgan to sign the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement; a
document outlining steps communities can take to reduce the threat of
global warming. The vote followed an Aug. 13 workshop presentation
about “Cool Cities,” a program of the Sierra Club, which calls for
communities to sign the agreement and do their part to meet or exceed
the goals of the Kyoto Protocol. The protocol includes reducing
pollution levels to seven percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

While councilors attending the August workshop largely favored taking
this next step toward implementing more energy efficient and
sustainable practices throughout the city, Councilor Jim Soule asked to
hear from “the other side.” He said he was uncomfortable with the
agreement’s associations to Kyoto, which the federal government refused
to ratify.

Although language was added to the resolve to state the city takes no
position on whether or not the U.S. government should engage in the
Kyoto agreement, Soule said he could not support the effort without
hearing from both sides of the equation. He added that his request for
another workshop had been denied.

The council also paved the way for the creation of a permanent service
monument that will recognize those from South Portland who have served
or are currently serving in worldwide conflicts. Councilors said the
monument was long overdue and unanimously approved the creation of a
service monument committee to make recommendations about suitable
locations and designs. Private contributions and grants will be sought
to supplement city funding.

Although there was no mention of the yellow ribbons that caused
controversy over differing opinions as to whether or not the placement
of ribbons on city and utility-owned property was a statement of
support for the Iraq war, Acting City Manager Jim Gailey said the
monument is not meant to be a political statement.

In his position paper to the council, Gailey said, “The intent is
recognition driven and will not serve to provide support or opposition
to any administration’s national policy decisions over the last 150
years.”

The council was scheduled to vote on expanding a contract with Pine
Tree Waste to include solid waste collection, however, in order to
allow for more public input, the item was postponed and will be
discussed at a special workshop at 6 p.m. on Sept. 17.

At the Aug. 13 workshop, the council largely favored entering into a
$4.3 million, five-year contract with Pine Tree Waste to continue
recyclable collection and implement solid waste pickup, rather than
continue with the current system in which the city picks up solid
waste. If approved, the contract would commence in the summer of 2008.