Latest news with #CodeofOrdinances
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
St. John the Baptist Parish youth curfew back in effect for the summer
ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST PARISH, La. (WGNO) — The St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff's Office is reminding residents of the annual youth curfew. In a post to Facebook, deputies said with students on summer break, teenagers are only allowed to be out during a certain time of day. West Nile virus detected in Orleans Parish mosquitoes Minors under the age of 17 must be off the street between the hours of 10 p.m.-5 a.m., unless supervised by a parent or legal guardian, as established by the St. John Parish's Code of Ordinances Section 28-1. 'This curfew has been in place for years, it's not new,' said Sheriff Mike Tregre. He added that during the summer, property crimes, including vandalism and burglaries, tend to increase. 'We are not trying to ruin anyone's summer, but we will enforce the law,' Sheriff Tregre said. 'Parents, please know where your minor children are and make sure they are abiding by the curfew.' Told he'd never talk, New Orleans 6-year-old now starts conversations at Xavier University Any teen in violation of the curfew 'will be dealt with in accordance with juvenile court law and procedures.' Parents in violation of the curfew rules will face a fine of up to $100, imprisonment of up to 10 days or both as decided by the Awnings Justin Baldoni countersuit against Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds dismissed Louisiana Public Broadcasting to honor six students across the state as young heroes NeuroJust – BioJust St. John the Baptist Parish youth curfew back in effect for the summer Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Animal Services task force offers recommendations
SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) — Months after being established amid mounting community concerns, the City of San Angelo's Animal Services & Control Task Force has presented recommendations to the City Council to remedy pet overpopulation. The formation of the nine-person force was announced by City Manager Daniel Valenzuela on Jan. 21. The group was tasked with addressing 'critical issues related to animal services and control,' with specified objectives including 'reducing the free-roaming dog population, increasing spay/neuter rates, managing shelter capacity, and creating or updating policies and ordinances.' RELATED: Nine people selected for animal services, control task force The task force presented several recommendations to the City Council during the council's May 6 meeting. Judge Allen Gilbert, chairman of the task force, stated that the committee's findings came after over 370 collective hours of research into San Angelo's pet population, the City's Animal Services Department and local and state laws. 'We reviewed City ordinances. We didn't go chapter by chapter, we went sentence by sentence,' Gilbert said. 'We reviewed the state law. Once again, we didn't go chapter by chapter, we went sentence by sentence. Because they wanted to know and they wanted to learn, and they said they couldn't make decisions without this.' Presented during the meeting was a 110-page packet containing photos of dogs found within San Angelo in the span of a singular week, with some pages depicting multiple dogs. Gilbert said the task force found that, 'at any given time in the city of San Angelo, there's over 500 dogs running loose.' Gilbert said that, left uncontrolled for two years, this number can add up to 'over 10,000 dogs.' 'Our dog bites are up, our dog attacks are up,' Gilbert said. One task force member stressed later in the meeting that citizens are feeling the effects of an unregulated pet population. 'We can't continue to ask the public to play animal control or take in every single animal that's been dumped or allowed to roam. People are tired and tapped out,' the member said. 'City ordinances have been ignored the past few years, we've dealt with closed animal intakes, limited code enforcement and a 'let them roam' policy. Now we're forced into having to talk about things rather than ignore them.' The recommendations During the task force's presentation, it was shown that its recommendations were given based on three goals: Community safety, animal welfare and governmental organization. Among its recommendations were several updates to the City's Code of Ordinances. Suggested changes included updating Section 3.01.001 — a section dedicated to providing definitions for terms used in the 'Animal Control' chapter of the code — to expand the period of time required for an individual to be considered a pet's owner from a minimum of three days to a minimum of 10 and to remove a specification outlined in the 'ear tipping' definition. Amending City ordinances and improving efforts to enforce ordinances and state laws related to dangerous animals, strays, facility intake and spaying and neutering were also recommended. 'Discussions were focused on making small but considerable changes that have a lasting effect on enforcement,' Adam Scott, assistant police chief of the San Angelo Police Department and task force member, said. 'Making enforcement of ordinances more streamlined as well and making recidivism in the shelter less likely.' Over $4M raised through San Angelo Gives 2025 The task force recommended doubling Animal Services' officers from four to eight to better address the community's needs. 'We recommend that four be increased to eight, basically doubling that number, putting a force multiplier in the street to readily increase enforcement for not only microchipping, spay and neuter, but also more importantly, for dangerous and vicious dogs that are on the streets,' Scott said. Scott outlined several other recommendations on behalf of the task force, including: More readily enforcing animal microchipping ordinances Improving enforcement for spay and neuter ordinances Reviving the registration tag system Requiring veterinary clinics to report unchipped animals and/or chip them before they leave Maintaining the City-managed database for registered and microchipped animals Increasing cooperation with Concho Valley PAWS and other local animal organizations for pet rehoming Leaving animal intake fully open at the San Angelo Animal Shelter Increasing cooperation with local law enforcement and utilizing the technology offered by local law enforcement Improving professional development for Animal Services officers Dr. Catie Morris, a veterinarian, owner of the Prickly Pear Veterinary Hospital and task force member, stressed that enforcing spay and neuter ordinances 'is a foundation to solving San Angelo's pet overpopulation crisis.' She recommended changes to said ordinances, such as extending the deadline that puppies and kittens need to be spayed or neutered by, to better ensure compliance from citizens. 'It has been proven time and time again that you can't kill or adopt your way out of overpopulation,' Morris said. 'Prevention is the key, and without strict changes in enforcement of the spay and neuter ordinances, San Angelo will never get ahead of the problems.' Returning to the podium later on, Gilbert stated that the task force would like to see Animal Services realigned to report directly to the City manager. 'We do believe that this is such a big issue within our community that the City manager having control of this would help us to speed up our ability to get control of this,' Gilbert said. 58K bass stocked in O.C. Fisher amid repopulation efforts One member recommended hiring a 'qualified Animal Services director' to facilitate a variety of goals, including ordinance enforcement, the management of public and animal welfare, the development and implementation of education programs and the establishment of public volunteer programs. 'This person should have strong leadership, communication and organizational skills along with a deep understanding of animal care, community management and regulatory compliance,' the member said. Task force member Mary Golder recommended that the San Angelo Animal Shelter resume adoption responsibilities, taking steps to provide and facilitate improved adoption services, hire an adoption coordinator and develop a foster program. Several other recommendations were given during the meeting. To hear all of the task force's recommendations, watch the City Council's livestream recording for its May 6 meeting. What's next? Gilbert said the task force believes that, if the City were to implement its recommendations, a decrease in San Angelo's burgeoning pet population would be observable 'within three to five years.' Valenzulea urged the City Council to consider analyzing the cost of implementing the task force's recommendations during its upcoming budget workshop. 'I have a great interest in implementing and making sure that we look at what does this do once we implement it, what changes does that make for the animal shelter,' Valenzuela said. 'I think there's going to be some pretty positive ones.' Councilmembers agreed to gather their questions to present to the task force at a later date. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Highway 41 work in Madera County will cost $150 million. Who's paying for it?
Reality Check is a Fresno Bee series holding those in power to account and shining a light on their decisions. Have a tip? Email tips@ It will cost Madera County an estimated $150 million to expand the two-lane Highway 41 near Riverstone and Tesoro Viejo, where daily rush-hour congestion makes obvious the need to improve the state road. That's a large price tag in a county where many are skeptical of how road work funding generated by their Measure T sales tax dollars has been administered in the past. So, who is footing the bill to improve the state route near Madera County's growing master-planned communities? 'At the end of the day, those improvements are largely going to be borne by the homes that are being built down there,' Madera County District 5 Supervisor Bobby Macaulay told The Bee. The county explained to The Bee how it intends to finance the Highway 41 improvements. The plan does not include any tax dollars from the 0.5% Measure T sales tax voters renewed in November, according to county officials. Development road impact fees and property tax increments generated by the Tesoro Viejo and Riverstone enhanced infrastructure financing districts will ultimately provide the majority of the funding. The rest will come from state and federal grants. Construction on the improvements — led by the county, not Caltrans — is expected to begin early next year. It will widen the highway to four lanes between avenues 10 1/2 and 15, and also add more turning lanes at the major intersections of the four-mile stretch. At $56.4 million, revenues from the road impact fees that Madera County charges developers make up 38% of the Highway 41 improvement funding. The county's Code of Ordinances says developers are charged $24,179 per single-family home they build in southeast Madera County. In the past year, Treber said, the county has collected an average of 'close to $2 million a month' from developers in road impact fees. A federal Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan is expected to provide 24% of the funding, or $36 million, for the Highway 41 improvements. This loan has been approved for the county, but its amount will be determined based on the actual bid price of the project. If necessary, the loan can fund up to 33% of the Highway 41 project. The county has also obtained a $25 million federal RURAL grant, which will fund an expected 17% of the project. Madera County has also applied for a $25 million grant from the state's Local Partnership Program, which would fund another 17% of the project. Awards for this competitive grant will be announced in June. Treber said the county is confident it will receive the award, but it can use more of the developer road impact fee funding and the federal loan if it does not obtain this grant. The county has also obtained $1.9 million in congressional discretionary funding from Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, which will provide 1% of the funding for this project. The last $3.9 million of the project's funding, or 3%, will come from the property tax increments already generated by the Riverstone and Tesoro Viejo enhanced infrastructure financing districts, known as EIFDs. The county established these two EIFDs in 2018 with the intention of funding parks and Highway 41 improvements. The districts are funded by 25% of the annual increase in county property tax revenue that is generated by development within Riverstone and Tesoro Viejo. Property tax revenues increase when development occurs because development on a property raises its assessed values. 'The homeowners aren't seeing an increase in their taxes,' Treber said. 'It's simply taking that incremental increase from vacant agricultural land into urban development and carving out 25% of that to fund regional infrastructure projects, primarily (Highway) 41.' The EIFDs will also repay the federal TIFIA loan the county is borrowing to fund the Highway 41 improvements. The funding generated by the EIFDs 'increases every year as more homes and more development occurs,' Treber said. The Highway 41 improvements come as Riverstone and Tesoro Viejo continue to add residents to Rio Mesa, the southeastern area of Madera County planned to one day be home to 100,000 people and 30,000 homes. But Treber said the Highway 41 expansion is not solely for the benefit of Riverstone and Tesoro Viejo. 'It's benefiting all of our residents that live on the 41 corridor, that commute down into the Valley every day,' he said. Macaulay, the District 5 county supervisor, also noted that over 1 million vehicles travel Madera County's stretch of Highway 41 each year on their way to Bass Lake and Yosemite National Park's southern gate. 'Beyond that, residents up in the mountain communities often have to travel to Fresno for work, as well as goods and services that they need,' Macaulay said. 'We're all using that road.'
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Wildfires in the Myrtle Beach area haven't destroyed any homes. Here are some reasons why
Wildfires have impacted more than 1,600 acres in the Myrtle Beach area, with flames burning within a few feet of homes in communities close to Carolina Forest. With firefighters and first responders attending to the wildfires, a fire unrelated to the Carolina Forest blaze destroyed just one residence in Little River Horry County Fire Rescue announced on its Facebook page. The question becomes what role fire prevention built into homes plays in ensuring wildfires haven't engulfed properties, considering some of their proximity to populated communities in Carolina Forest. According to one home builder, it is negligible compared to the work of first responders who contained the flames over the last several days. Jason Repak is the president of the Myrtle Beach-based custom home building firm Hudson Custom Homebuilders, Inc. In an interview with The Sun News, Repak said that most fire-deterrent technology in a home prevents the spread of fires started in the house versus from external sources like wildfires. Things like firewalls between townhomes or using different types of drywall in different parts of homes slow fires from spreading, Repak said. Repak added that other fire prevention technologies in dwellings keep homes from collapsing on their occupants before they can escape. 'The thing that kept those homes from catching on fire and burning are the firefighters. There's just no, there's just no two ways about it,' Repak added. 'Yes, there are materials that we use and technologies that we put in place building homes to help prevent fire spread in homes. But I can't specifically point to one piece that if we didn't change that piece of technology, those homes would have burned up.' Yet homes built in South Carolina are already built to withstand extreme events like hurricanes. In 2024, the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety published a report rating the 18 states along the hurricane coast from Texas to Maine with the best building code systems. Of the 18 states featured in the ranking, South Carolina tied for the third-best building code system. Meanwhile, Horry County's Code of Ordinances for buildings and building regulations follows the International Fire Code created by the International Code Council. Repak said the Myrtle Beach area also provides a wide range of weather events that require building sturdier homes to survive extreme weather events. Whether it's making homes earthquake-proof, roofs resistant to high winds, or abodes able to cope with the occasional tropical storm or hurricane, Repak said that builders must account for all of that in Horry County. 'We live in a very unique place when it comes to constructing houses,' He added. 'So we have to deal with almost every type of weather phenomenon in this area that you can build a home for.' Part of the benefit comes from the large number of new homes throughout the Grand Strand and Carolina Forest. The Carolina Forest communities are relatively new along the Grand Strand. Hence its name, Carolina Forest, retained its lush greenery and remained mostly undeveloped until the early 2000s. Its remoteness and vast wilderness made it an attractive occasional practice range for the Conway Bombing and Gunnery Range between 1942 and 1947, and unexploded ordnance occasionally appeared in the Carolina Forest area in recent years. The Myrtle Beach area and South Carolina have an ample supply of homes built within the last two to three decades. According to a report by the National Association of Home Builders, in 2023, the median age of a house owned in the United States was 40 years old. According to the NAHB, the median age of South Carolina's housing stock was between 23-30 years old, and the real estate data firm ATTOM lists the average age of homes in Horry County as 30 years. Repak added that newer homes also benefit from utilizing better fire-prevention technology that older homes could not access during the building process. 'Technology progresses, and material manufacturing progresses. We continue to find materials that create a little bit safer structure for homeowners,' Repak said. 'Remember, it was 50 years ago. We were putting asbestos in homes and lead-based paint 10 years before that.' However, Repak said this new technology can only account for a small portion of preventing homes from catching on fire, such as slowing the spread of a fire from one home to the next. He added that the work of firefighters and a touch of luck were responsible for preventing the mass destruction of fire due to flames in Carolina Forest. 'That was the effort of those firefighters and emergency responders on scene that got those fires knocked down before they spread to those homes because they could have easily spread those homes,' Repak said. 'Especially like the homes that you see down on in Cherry Grove, Atlantic Beach, North Myrtle Beach, all those oceanfront row homes that are close together, once a home catches on fire, it's very easy for that fire to jump from one home to the next.'
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Marietta City Council to discuss ordinance making it illegal to lie down on private property
The Marietta City Council's Judicial Legislative Committee will discuss adopting an ordinance making it illegal to stay or lie down on private property without express permission from the owner. According to the summary of Marietta City Council ordinance 20250074, if passed it would make it against the law for anyone to 'camp, sleep, reside, store personal property or lie upon any private property' without a leaseholder or owner's permission. Essentially, it would be against the law to stay on that property to sleep or rest without an owner giving the go-ahead. As far as the legislative text itself, the proposed ordinance does not specify who it is meant to target. The full text of the proposal available reads: 'Prohibited Use of Private Property. It shall be unlawful for anyone other than the owner of a private property, a leaseholder of such private property, or other rightful occupant of such private property to camp, sleep, reside, store personal property, or lie upon any private property without the owner's or leaseholder's permission. Any such use of private property authorized by and consented to by the owner or leaseholder or other rightful occupant of such private property must be in conformity with the provisions of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Marietta, Georgia and the Zoning Ordinances of the City of Marietta, Georgia, including, but not limited to, the zoning and land use provisions of said Code of Ordinances which are applicable to such private property, and if such use is a violation of said Code of Ordinances or said Zoning Ordinances, an authorization of such use by the landowner or leaseholder shall not nullify a violation of any provision of this Chapter.' Channel 2 Action News has reached out to the Marietta City Council for more information about the provisions of the ordinance and the reason for its proposal. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] TRENDING STORIES: Georgia education officials say these schools need academic support Attorneys call civil rights litigation freeze by Department of Justice a slap in the face ICE launches 'targeted operations' in metro Atlanta [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
