North Tonawanda revises livestock law, moves forward with concert series

NORTH TONAWANDA - After receiving quite a few requests from residents asking the city for permission to raise livestock on their North Tonawanda properties, the common council passed a resolution, which advised the already existing law, to allow those residents to do so.

City Attorney Shawn Nickerson has spent time looking into the legal aspects of allowing city residents to this, and throughout his research, he learned it was already legal; however, the council wanted to take all aspects of this into consideration to guarantee the satisfaction of all city residents.

Owners of livestock will have to obtain a permit from the City Clerk-Treasurers office, receive consent from neighbors, be limited to five chickens and the law restricts residents from housing roosters.

All livestock permits will have to renewed annually.

Members of the common council raised concerns pertaining to the potential concert series hosted by Greg Doel of Crazy Jakes on various dates throughout the summer.

The council passed a four to one vote to close down Webster Street during the four concerts, so that pedestrians would not be in direct contact with motorists during the event.

Malcolm Needler noted his concern for the safety of residents indicating there may be too many people in one location (3,500 to 4,000 anticipated) and not enough security (12 to 15 certified security guards will be on hand).

In addition, Needler suggested increasing the amount of insurance coverage, which was quoted at $1 million to insure the city is not liable for any possible accidents.

Although he voted to pass the resolution, which will grant Doel use of Webster street during the hours of concert operation, Russ Rizzo agreed with Needler regarding the insurance amount. He suggested to Doel that the amount be raised to $3 million.

Doel felt confident he could meet these requests.

In other city news:

• North Tonawanda received a grant from the Green Innovation Grant Program in the amount of $574,000, which will be used for infrastructure drainage improvement on Webster Street.

The project will allow city engineers to install bio-filters in the drainage system, which will then filter out the oil and gasoline that gets mixed into drain water and flows into the Niagara River.

• The next North Tonawanda Common Council meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 15 at 216 Payne Ave., North Tonawanda.