Public hearings to address stop signs, dog bites

MARENGO — The Marengo City Council will conduct two public hearings during its 6 p.m. meeting Wednesday, Dec. 27, one for a stop sign and one for a change to the animal ordinance.

The council will hear comments about its proposal to erect two more stop signs at the intersection at May Street and Court Avenue near Iowa Valley Elementary School, making it a four-way stop. Currently, traffic on May Street must stop, but traffic on Court Avenue does not, said Marengo Police Chief Ben Gray. He advised the city to have all cars stop at the intersection because of its proximity to a school.

A second public hearing will address a change to the animal ordinance, Section 55, defining a vicious animal.

The current code says a vicious animal is defined as set forth in Marengo Ordinance 57.2, but that ordinance doesn’t exist, said Gray. It probably did at one time, said Gray, but now that it doesn’t, the city needs to amend Section 55 “to clean it up.”

Under the new language, an animal will be considered vicious if it perpetrates an attack which requires a defensive action to prevent bodily injury or property damage when a person is behaving peacefully and lawfully; if it attacks and causes property damage or injury to a person who is behaving peacefully and lawfully; if it attacks another animal; or if it behaves in a way that constitutes a threat of bodily harm to a person behaving peacefully and lawfully.

The council discussed the issue of dog bites last month after a postal worker was attacked by a dog. Gray reiterated during last week’s meeting that police don’t condemn a dog on the first offense, and whether or not police issue a citation will be based on the situation. If a child pulls a dog’s tail, for example, and the dog bites, the dog isn’t considered vicious because the child provoked the attack.

“We document it,” said Gray, because an animal that bites once has a propensity to bite again, but the animal isn’t considered vicious by definition.

Gray said this has been the practice of the police department, but it wasn’t spelled out in the ordinance and referenced a non-existent ordinance.