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.