By Steve Woodhouse
The Chronicle
August 01, 2008 03:28 pm
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At its regular meeting Monday morning, the Marion County Board of Supervisors held a hearing regarding a dog complaint. The owners of the dog, Brian and Cindy Nikkel, were served notice by the county that their dog was a nuisance. When the letter was received, the Nikkels requested a hearing before the supervisors. The Nikkels live in Dutchman’s Landing, an unincorporated part of the county outside of Pella.
Board Chairman Sam Nichols decided to let the complainant, Mickey Van Dusseldorp, speak first at the hearing.
Van Dusseldorp said she had approached the Nikkels on several occasions about the dog barking. She claimed that the dog barked for hours throughout the day and night.
“This is not the only dog we’ve had a problem with in Dutchman’s Landing,” Van Dusseldorp said. She gave the board three letters that supported her claim, from neighbors. Following the hearing, Cindy Nikkel said two of the letters were from people who do not live in the development.
Lt. Tom Morgan, with the sheriff’s office, said he first investigated the situation when he received a call about a dog not being fed or watered. Van Dusseldorp said that claim was the “only way” she could get the sheriff’s department there. Morgan said he made several more trips to the Nikkel home about the dog.
“This went on for months,” Morgan said. “I never heard the dog bark when I was out there.”
Cindy Nikkel said the first few times, deputies did not mention anything about the barking. They would talk with her husband about deer hunting.
“I think there’s only been two or three times she’s barked at night,” Cindy Nikkel said of her dog. She told the board that after the dog was six months old, it began to bark a lot. As a courtesy, the Nikkels put a collar on the dog that gives it a shock when it barked.
“I don’t think she barks as much anymore,” Cindy Nikkel said. In the past, she said the family has tried to sell the dog, but to no avail. They moved the dog since they received the letter on June 4.
“She’s a dog. She’s going to bark sometimes,” Cindy Nikkel said.
Supervisor Howard Pothoven said most people don’t complain about something until it has happened frequently. He added that it is the owner’s responsibility to abate a barking dog nuisance.
The board asked County Attorney Terry Rachels if he believed this instance fit under the county’s nuisance ordinance, chapter 41.
“In my opinion, it does appear to be,” Rachels told the board. Pothoven made the motion to consider the dog a nuisance. It was seconded by Mater and approved unanimously.
If the problem persists, Rachels said a civil citation, or a ticket, could be issued to the Nikkels. The matter would then be referred to the court for another hearing and a judge would decide how the nuisance would be abated.
Other supervisors’ notes:
• Approved an LP gas contract with New Alliance Farm Service. Each year, the county engineer’s office collects proposals for secondary road shops, the care facility, landfill and conservation buildings. This year, there were two. New Alliance Farm Service proposed a price of $1.90 a gallon and Two Rivers Cooperative proposed $2.06 a gallon. New Alliance Farm Service’s agreement runs from Aug. 1, 2008, through July 31, 2009. Last year, the county paid $1.369 per gallon for LP gas.
• Passed a resolution to designate Jeff Anderson as the Homeland Security point of contact in Marion County for disaster situations. Anderson said it is a formality required for a National Incident Management System document.
• Approved work beyond right of way agreements between the Secondary Road Department and Roger Jordan, Dan Haselhuhn, Randy Van Wyngarden, Logan Ver Ploeg, Deborah Schneider and Mary Pregon.
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