| From
the Police Chief
I would like to expand just a touch on a notice that appeared in the paper last week (a corrected version of which is on page 10 of the print edition this week), and hopefully to help our citizens understand what it all means. The notice was regarding the City of Cottonwood’s ordinance pertaining to dogs. Previously the fine for dog related violations (dog at large, failure to license, barking dog, etc.) was $53.00, and the fine would increase on repeated offenses. The city has never charged the increased fines, and therefore the fines for the past ten years were fifty three dollars, which in the end saved several of our residents quite a large sum of money. Well, seems that the only thing that you can guarantee is change, and it has. The court contacted me regarding the basic court costs; these have increased to $56.50, so our $53 dollar fine didn’t even cover the basic court costs. I gave that information to our City Council. The Council decided to change the fine to become a basic infraction which will tie in with what the State of Idaho has set on their schedule for an infraction. This will greatly simplify the entire process. Now, if you are a dog owner in our fine city you need to know that the fine for any dog violation is now $72.00. What that means is that if you do not license your dog (required every year) you could receive a citation for seventy two dollars. This does apply to dogs that “are never out of the house” and any other dog within the city. If your dog is barking extensively and disturbing the neighbors, yep, you guessed it, $72. If your dog runs around when you let it out in the night time or early morning, you guessed it, it could be seventy two bucks. Folks, there is a pretty easy fix to all this, and a way that we can avoid the new $72.00 fine. We all need to be responsible animal owners and keep our dogs on leashes, clean up after them, buy the licenses, and don’t have our four legged friends barking so much that it bothers the neighbors. |
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