Chickens In The City Of Bismarck? Looks Like Fowl Play.

If you had the dream of fresh, free chicken eggs coming from your very own backyard and not the grocery store, it looks like that is a pipe dream.  Tuesday night at the City Commission Meeting, commissioner Steve Marquardt pulled the item from the consent agenda for discussion.

Mayor Steve Bakken told me, "We discussed and voted to not move the item forward, chickens in the city of Bismarck are dead."  Just in case you're wondering how the vote went with the 5 city commissioners, it was 4-1 against chickens.  What the cluck?

As I've reported from the beginning, don't get to egg-cited about the possibility of chickens in the city.  The Mayor strongly opposes backyard chickens in Bismarck.  He believes the smell and noise will be a problem in neighborhoods.  He's on the record saying, "We're not Mandan or Fargo."

The mayor of Bismarck went on to tell me yesterday, that even if chickens would've passed the City Commission Meeting, that most people still wouldn't have been able to have chickens.  Mayor Steve Bakken said most neighborhoods in the city have covenants that would prevent you from having chickens anyway.  You would have to check with your local covenant to see if that's the case with you.

Are chickens "fried" completely?  Not necessarily, a person could collect signatures and initiate a ballot measure.  The number of signatures would depend on the number of people who voted on last falls general election.  So, you're telling me there's a chance?