Unruliness ends Pickering council meeting

Mayor Charles Smith ended the Pickering City Council meeting September 19, when the discussion on the farm animal ordinance escalated into foul language and name calling.

This was a continuation of a complaint about a pig at the Parker residence inside the city limits which was brought before the council at the August 1 meeting. Justin Parker had been notified by Smith that the pig was not allowed in the city limits. Smith had presented a copy of the ordinance to the resident.

At the August 1 meeting, Parker had attended the meeting to claim that the ordinance was illegal and that the pig pen was only one foot within the city limits. The matter was tabled until City Clerk Milt Sovereign could follow up on the legality of the ordinance.

At the September meeting, Parker, along with Kim Wray and Jennifer Wray, were upset that a letter had been sent giving them until September 6 to remove the pig. According to Smith, Sheriff Darren White had instructed City Attorney David Baird to handle the manner resulting in the letter.

Sovereign had checked with several other municipalities and the city attorney about the legality of the ordinance. As of September 19, he had found out nothing to suggest it was illegal. He had a request with the Missouri Municipal League office. Sovereign was notified on September 20, that there is not a law that disallows two council members from being in the same household.

Parker did state that he had moved the pig one foot to be outside of what he determined to be the city limits.

In other business, $607.50 was paid to Brad Judd for bobcat work and $67 to Jordan Smith for chainsaw work on the storm debris brush pile.

The sign posts for the community building was tabled until the October meeting.

Sewer customers for June dropped to 67 customers paying an average of $32.54. Sovereign said that the state Department of Natural Resources would probably insist the city raise the sewer rates in the future to cover the bonds.