Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Will the City of Lake Worth once again become a "chicken battleground"?

Lake Worth Commissioner Ryan Maier is the Founder of the Lake Worth Chickens Facebook page. Frank Cerabino wrote about this in 2011. [Note that Ryan Maier didn't start a Infrastructure Facebook page or a Code Enforcement Facebook page]. Here from the article by The Palm Beach Post's Frank Cerabino:
Lake Worth has once again become a chicken battleground.

The pro-chicken forces in the city were rebuffed two years ago when the city commission rejected an ordinance that would have allowed Lake Worth residents to raise a few egg-laying hens in backyard coops.

A hen that appeared to be unattended and homeless wanders a vacant lot near the intersection of 2nd Avenue and G Street in Lake Worth. A Facebook group is seeking to change the city's code to allow residents to keep "a small number" of hens in their yards.

But now, with a special election for mayor looming at the end of the month, the chicken squawking is back.

"There's a whole clandestine chicken army out there," said former City Commissioner Cara Jennings, who mother-henned the 2009 effort but is lying low this time.

Freelance hairstylist Ryan Maier, 31, started a Facebook group called Lake Worth Chickens recently because of his interest in growing his own food.
You can read about ex-Commissioner Cara Jennings' involvement in the chicken issue here.
Photo courtesy of the Tom McGow Archives.
An example of a chicken coop from the Lake Worth Chickens Facebook page, March 16, 2013.