Town considering new pet law

It all started over a year ago, when residents started complaining to police about a neighbor they said didn’t keep a dangerous dog contained in the yard.

That led to scrutiny of the town’s current ordinance on pets, dangerous animals and more, and a decision it all needed to be brought up to modern standards that mesh with state law.

The Coulee Dam City Council is getting close but stopped short of a vote Wednesday when they learned the city attorney wanted a chance to talk with them about it first. That should happen at the next scheduled Zoom meeting of the council Feb. 24.

So far, the council seems to have settled on a limit of four animals in a household, only two of which can be dogs. Licenses may be set at $10 per pet, good for three years, about a tenth of an earlier price point discussed but deemed counterproductive.

In other business, the council discussed formalizing a policy already in practice: allowing an adjacent property owner to pay a contractor to pour a new city sidewalk where the walkway has been broken up by tree roots. The city crew must first remove the old sidewalk and trim any tree roots deemed necessary for trimming.

No vote was taken yet.

The council did vote to appoint Varela and Associates as the engineer for an upcoming sidewalk replacement project on Ferry Avenue, which should be done this summer.