The public safety committee discussed conducting a “Slow Down Marietta Week” after chairman Councilman Anthony Coleman called one street “the Kennestone 500.”
“We’ve been doing some ticketing,” Coleman said about 60 tickets issued in a recent three-day period. “I don’t think that’s (the police department’s) first option, to go back to writing tickets, but it does get people’s attention. I want a proactive approach.”
Coleman said speeders create a secondary public safety problem.
“People are not following the limit and they’re tailgating drivers going the speed limit. It causes a lot of tension,” he said.
Police Officer S.M. Kish said a program targeted at speeders would be relatively simple to stage.
“We’ll step up public awareness and send the message we’re not going to tolerate speeders,” he said.
Councilman Johnny Sinclair supported the idea but offered a warning.
“We used to have Slow Down Marietta days. People would hand out doughnuts. Others would tell us what to do with the doughnuts. They were mad as hornets,” he said. “People don’t think about what they’re doing.”
Backyard chickens failed to garner support from the judicial and legislative committee, chaired by Councilman Phil Goldstein.
Backyard chicken advocate Kristen Picken, a Marietta resident, spoke to the Council as she did at its Oct. 10 regular meeting.
“I work with a group that wants to get the law changed in the city of Marietta and the county,” she said about the Backyard Chickens Alliance of Cobb County.
The group collected nearly 2,500 signatures on a petition to change the zoning ordinance.
Councilman Jim King said Marietta permits chickens on 5 acres or more, while the county requirement is 2 acres. Other cities in the county either do not allow chickens or require 2 to 3 acres of land.
But the issue died when a straw poll showed most Council members opposed changing the law, citing lot sizes and the distance between coops and property lines.
“With four against, it would be hard to bring,” Goldstein said.
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Just my opinion, as head of the Backyard Chickens Alliance.
Why not turn the NIYBY people into NIMBY people like they should be? Why should anybody have any say over what goes in my back yard seeing as how I did not sign up to live in some ghated HOA?
Yeah, ghated. It's a new English word invented right here just for you. It's short for Gated Ghetto.
So, let the HOA sort it out in the ghateds, but otherwise let people decide for themselves what goes in their back yards.
If somebody's chicken is too annoying, I feel sure some coyote will take care of it at 3 AM.