Bean approached the Ragland council Monday and said he was not complaining about pit bulls, but vicious dogs in general.
“Recently, there was a guy who works for the phone company, and he was in Newtown and three pit bulls got a hold of him at one time,” Bean said. “He’s out trying to make a living. My mother lives on 3rd Avenue, and anytime you want to ride over there, there’s a bulldog here and a bulldog there. This is serious, and we need to get the ball rolling. If Ragland does something, maybe the other towns will follow suit.”
Bean said he has many friends who have bulldogs, but they have kennels, chain-link fence and concrete floors.
“That’s fine with me,” Bean said. “There has never been a problem with those dogs. But I’ve got a permit to hunt on 400 acres behind my house, and I can’t load up my beagles without somebody’s dogs coming in the woods and killing my dogs. I don’t want to go to jail for killing a dog, but y’all have got to do something. Somebody is going to get hurt real bad before it’s over.”
Councilman Richard Bunt said the guy that got attacked came by his house, and told him about getting attacked.
“The dogs ripped his clothes and pants off,” Bunt said.
Mayor Lanis White said they had obtained a vicious dog ordinance from the city of Trussville, but that it singled out pit bulls.
“To me, if we pursue this, it needs to say vicious dog ordinance, and that means any dog that showed any kind of a vicious nature,” White said.
Councilman Britt Hathcox said it needs to read vicious dog period.
The council unanimously agreed to get town attorney Bill Weathington to draw up the ordinance to read any breed of dog that showed vicious behavior.
In another matter, a drainage problem at the intersection of Main Street and Ragland School cannot be repaired because it is on school property. White said they are unable to work on private property.
“The drainage ditch is coming from the red light and runs down and ties in with another pipe that runs down toward the creek,” street department supervisor Paul Davis said. “The reason we are having problems with water standing there is because the pipe there is only a 6- or 8-inch pipe. I realize this is probably going to be on school property, but if you will give me the approval, I can solve that problem. It’s obvious the state is not going to give us any help.”
“I’ve said this before, and that is we cannot go on private property and do work,” White said. “If we could coordinate it, and get the school board to do their part, we can do our part. We cannot go on school property or anybody’s property to do work. I know it needs to be fixed and I applaud Paul’s effort on wanting to get it fixed. But we will have to get the school board to cooperate with us and work with us on this.”
In other business, the council;
• Approved the 2011 fiscal year financial audit.
• Approved sending Penny Owens to an immigration law update meeting March 2 in Hoover.
• Approved sending Malea Kay to a regional court seminar April 5-6 in Birmingham.
• Agreed to get a quote of up to $1,500 for a thumb for the backhoe.
• Declared the old library building and property surplus property.
• Approved the minutes from the previous meeting.
• Approved the payment of due bills.
Contact Gary Hanner at ghanner@thestclairtimes.com.
