Council gives preliminary OK to modified dog ordinance

Minor change retains responsibility for reporting inoculation, shifts burden to Humane Society

Sterling’s proposed dog ordinance changes underwent another change Tuesday evening.

City Council held first reading and allowed public comment on the ordinance during its scheduled business meeting Tuesday and elected to put back wording that had earlier been taken out. The current ordinance requires regular reporting to the city of dog vaccinations:

“The person performing the vaccination shall retain a record of all vaccinations in his office and shall forward to the city weekly a copy of the certificate of inoculation for any dog so inoculated.”

That sentence was struck from the proposed new ordinance because the city simply didn’t have the people needed to track those reports.

City Attorney Matthew Richardson told the Council Tuesday that he’d been contacted by Logan County Humane Society, who had offered to do the tracking for the city. That verbiage was added to the ordinance and the council approved it on first reading, 7-0. A second reading and public hearing on the ordinance will be held at the council’s April 9 meeting.

Public comment is normally not allowed during first reading of an ordinance, but Mayor Matt Foos set aside that rule to allow comment Tuesday. One citizen asked why electronic controls couldn’t be included along with leashes when keeping dogs under control. Councilman Albert Delgado agreed that it is unfortunate that “a few bad actors” make things more difficult for others, but that the overall safety of the community has to be considered.

In other business Tuesday the council:

• Approved an agreement with the Re-1 Valley School District

and Sterling Baseball Organization for use of the ball fields at Elm Street and Pawnee Avenue;

• Accepted a bid of $158,521 for the city’s 2024 curb ramp and on-call concrete contractor project to Concrete Specialties of Sterling;

• Approved a grant agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration for $448,000 tor reconstruction of the south apron at Sterling Municipal Airport. The city is required to match with 24,945.

The council also received an hour-long briefing on Colorado water law and the city’s water situation from the city’s water lawyers and consulting engineers. The city is well prepared to meet a growth rate of 1 percent per year over the next 50 years. Council members later met with attorneys in executive session to discuss water cases the city is involved in.

During the city manager’s report, Kevin Blankenship advised the council that testing of tornado sirens will begin April 7. The sirens will be sounded at noon every Friday through tornado season. Blankenship noted that, should severe weather conditions threaten during midday on Fridays, the sirens won’t be tested, to eliminate confusion.