The city of Leitchfield will soon have an ordinance precluding hunting on city-owned property.
At Tuesday night’s meeting, Parks and Recreation Director Tammee Saltsman requested the Leitchfield City Council adopt an ordinance that prohibits hunting in city parks.
“I’m not against hunting at all, I just feel like the city park is not the place to do it,” Saltsman told the council.
She said the impetus for her request is an individual that is using a hawk to practice falconry (using a bird of prey to hunt wild animals) at Beville Park. In this case, the person is using a hawk to capture squirrels.
On at least one occasion people walking in Beville Park witnessed the hawk capture a squirrel.
“A lot of the walkers, they were very upset to watch that and witness that,” Saltsman said.
Saltsman contacted Kentucky Fish & Wildlife officials regarding the legality of hunting in a public park. She was told the individual is within his rights to hunt on public land, and that the city needs to establish an ordinance to prohibit the activity.
During the council’s discussion on the matter, it was decided the ordinance should be crafted to outlaw hunting on all city-owned property.
City Attorney Earlene Wilson will write the ordinance and present the document, presumably at the next regularly scheduled city council meeting on February 5.
Two properties rezoned
The council approved a rezoning request for Howard Avenue, off Wallace Avenue, from Agricultural to R-2 (single-family, medium density).
The Leitchfield Planning Commission held a public hearing on the matter on January 8 where the commission determined that the “property is improperly zoned as agricultural because the surrounding area is residential in nature and there are not enough acres located in the tract of land to meet the agricultural requirement,” according to Planning Administrator Tyler Harrell.
Following the recommendation of the Planning Commission, the council approved rezoning the property from Agricultural to R-2.
A second rezoning request asking that 306 Marion Street be rezoned from C-1 to EX-1 (exclusive use), for the purposes of a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility, was also approved by the council.
Executive Session
The council entered into a 56-minute Executive Session to discuss purchasing land and litigation.
“We discussed some possible land purchases to expand some operations in the city. There was no definite decisions reached,” Wilson said upon the council returning to the public meeting.
Wilson added that she updated the council on “pending lawsuits and where they stand at this time.”
Mayor Pro Tem Billy Dallas led the meeting as Mayor Harold Miller was battling an illness.
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
