Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 5, 1995 TAG: 9510060012
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Vinton Town Council unanimously amended its animal control ordinance to better define livestock and swine and to prohibit some other animals from being kept inside the town limits.
"No one that I talked to said we should do anything but amend the ordinance," Mayor Charles Hill said said during Tuesday's meeting. "Numerous people have told me the ordinance should be changed."
In the revision, two broad categories - livestock and swine - list the Vietnamese pot-bellied pig as being a prohibited animal. The ordinance was revised because of a recent case involving three pot-bellied pigs being kept as pets.
Three little pigs - Arnold, Wilbur and Charlotte - are the pets of Gerald and Emma Saunders who keep them at their home on West Cleveland Avenue. Vinton authorities said the pigs were livestock and could not stay within the town limits.
But a Roanoke County General District Court judge ruled that the town's animal control ordinance was too vague on the matter of livestock and pigs.
The ordinance said livestock could not be kept inside the town limits but it did not define livestock.
The new amendments are designed to remedy that, and Town Attorney William L. Heartwell said he hopes this will put the matter to rest.
The amendments state: "Livestock shall include all bovine animals, equine animals, ovine animals, swine and porcine animals, including Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs and related breeds of pigs..."
In another section, the amendments state: "Swine shall mean all porcine animals, including Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs and related breeds of pigs."
On another matter, council members adopted a resolution officially objecting to a recent action by the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors.
The supervisors granted a special-use permit to allow fly ash to be used as fill material at a construction site on Washington Avenue and Feather Road, near three wells that supply about 40 percent of Vinton's water needs.
County officials have said fly ash, which contains magnesium, iron, salinium and traces of arsenic, is safe and will not contaminate the wells, but Vinton officials are not convinced.
Vice Mayor Joseph L. Bush Jr. urged passage of the resolution, directed to the supervisors and the state health and environmental quality departments.
"We need to go on record expressing our unhappiness with this," Bush said.
Bush also said Roanoke County officials have said that if the fly ash contaminated Vinton's wells, the county would supply the town with water.
Bush asked Town Manager Clay Goodman to get in writing that the county would supply the water at no additional cost to the town.
by CNB