Puppy noise hounds Monroe residents

A citizen complaint about a large number of barking puppies at a dog-breeding site on the southeast edge of Monroe was delivered to the town’s council at its February meeting on Thursday.

The monthly gathering, delayed one week due to a large snowstorm last week, allowed Stephanie Geimer, who lives near the dog business, to register the complaint, saying there is a large number of puppies of a smaller breed that make constant noise which carries throughout the neighborhood.

She said the noise is so persistent that her family cannot enjoy their patio in the warm months and that the sounds can be clearly heard at the four adjacent baseball/softball fields a short distance away.

Geimer, who stated that she “doesn’t like the practice” of dog-breeding as a moneymaking enterprise, works for a Decatur law firm and checked on the site to discover that it does not have a dogbreeding license.

She also revealed that some puppies sell for up to $1,000 apiece.

Geimer told the council that the owner of the site has put up siding so no one can see the puppies or count how many there are.

Justin Shaffer, Monroe’s superintendent of several departments, said he checked with Mark Wynn, Adams County’s building and planning director, and was told that Wynn has been aware of the situation for some time and, as Shaffer said, Wynn “is working on getting that shut down.”

Shaffer noted that while the property is in Monroe’s town limits, the zoning is controlled by the county, which is why Wynn is involved. He said Wynn has visited the location at least three times.

Shaffer stated that there are at least three kennels on the site.

In related news, the council scheduled an executive session for March 31 in Town Hall to not only look over and redo all the community’s ordinances, but also to discuss and create a specific ordinance regulating noise. For years, councilman Mike Geels has been publicly upset about barking dogs and, at the February session, he again urged that there be a noise ordinance.

The public and the news media cannot attend executive sessions, but any ordinance worked on at the March 31 meeting would presumably be acted upon at the council’s April 7 public meeting.