By Nate Jones

Staff Writer 

The birds and the bees

Monday, one year after the South Portland City Council approved an ordinance governing the raising of chickens within the city, City Manager Jim Gailey presented the first annual progress report to the council. 

“”We have issued 14 permits,” he said, adding that up to 20 could have been issued. “We’ve had zero complaints.”

Although it is not yet time for a progress report on another ordinance concerning beekeeping, Gailey said the city had issued one permit for a single hive.

Council sees sign

The council also narrowly approved placing a temporary sign made by members of the Service Monument Committee at the location future location for the monument in time for Veterans Day. Committee member Michael Welch said the group was hoping the four-by-eight-foot sign would raise awareness to aid their fundraising efforts. While all the councilors said they were in favor of the monument project as a whole, they had different suggestions on the location of the sign and the duration it should be displayed. 

“I’m not sure how we can allow this sign to go in Mill Creek Park and not allow other signs for different fundraisers,” Councilor Linda Boudreau said. 

Councilor Kay Loring said she understood the committee had tried to save money by making the sign themselves, but was not satisfied with the results. 

“It looks cheesy and cheap,” she said. “This is too important a project for you to do yourselves.”

Both Boudreau and Loring said they felt the sign would be more appropriate in front of the old National Guard Armory rather than in the park even though Welch said the group “needed the visibility.”

“The location of the monument has been discussed for a year,” Mayor Jim Soule said. “It’s not as if there hasn’t been discussion and it’s important for folks to know where this is going to be.”

The council approved the sign to be installed until Nov. 17 at which time the council would discuss a new sign and where it would remain for up to year with a 4 to 3 vote with councilors Tom Blake, Boudreau and Loring in the minority. The council has yet to grant final approval of a design for the actual monument, however, the sign will include a rendering of one the committee is considering, Welch said.

Tattoos

After several workshops, a moratorium and a postponement, the city council passed the first reading for an ordinance governing tattoo and body piercing establishments in South Portland in a 4 to 3 vote with councilors Tom Blake, Kay Loring and James Hughes in the minority. Blake repeated his suggestion that the ordinance – which costs $50 and requires all employees to pass a criminal background check – was “just six more pages to another layer of government.”

“The state has it covered,” Blake said. “This creates a fair amount of work for our staff, which I think is already maxed out.”

Councilors Linda Boudreau and Maxine Beecher said they were concerned about “bodily fluids,” and felt the ordinance was appropriate. Mayor Jim Soule said he supported the ordinance on the basis of safety.

“I would like to thank the city manager [Jim Gailey] for bringing this forward and pointing out there is a hole in our ordinance,” Soule said. “We didn’t have anything in place for [tattoo and body piercing establishments.]”

Gailey said the state’s Department of Health and Human Services does have a permitting process for tattoo parlors, “but they’ll be the first to tell you” they were not able to complete annual check ins at every business, he said. 

“It’s not up to us to pick up the state’s work,” Hughes said. “It’s up to us to complain they’re not doing it.”

A second reading on the ordinance is scheduled to be on the Nov. 17 council agenda.