Jackson Aldermen deny reptile-rescue permit in ‘virtual’ meeting
Children’s of Alabama Launches New and Improved App to Identify Dangerous Animals, Insects, Plants and Household Poisons
Evolution in action! Researchers in Australia study a lizard that can lay eggs and give birth to live babies at the same time – a phenomenon never seen before in the reptile
Jr. Naturalist: Reptile Roundup – Snakes
A public post from Drus FaceBook page
Since tomorrow night will be the final vote with the Board of Alderman concerning our request for a special use permit, here is part three of this fiasco. I left off with the Planning & Zoning Board meeting which consisted of a public hearing and vote. This was on 12 February. After the public hearing and listening to statements both in support and in opposition, the Board ultimately voted in favor of approving our special use permit WITH NO RESTRICTIONS. That part is important here. During the hearing, both Tara and I agreed to several restrictions which included not having any open houses in the future, limiting any visitors to our home at no more than two vehicles, and allowing vehicles to park in our driveway rather than on the street. But remember how I said two of the Board members were extremely biased and unprofessional? That was Janice Unger and Bill Fadler. There was a motion on the floor to vote on approving the SUP with the restriction of no more than two visitor’s vehicles at our house at one time. After the motion was made and discussion ensued, Mrs Unger and Mr Fadler decided to make asses of themselves so the original motion was withdrew and a new motion to approve the SUP permit WITH NO RESTRICTIONS passed by a vote of 7-2. Of course the two dissenting votes were from Mrs Unger and Mr Fadler. Imagine that. The next step in this process involves the Board of Aldermen voting on the SUP taking into account the recommendation of the Planning & Zoning Board. The VAST majority of the time the Board of Aldermen will go along with the Planning & Zoning Board’s recommendation. But hell no, that wasn’t going to be the case with us. Remember that this meeting occurred on 12 Feb. The Board of Aldermen meeting was the following week on 19 Feb. This meant we had one week to prepare. At the Board of Aldermen meeting the vote was tabled and ANOTHER public hearing was scheduled for 16 Mar. During the meeting, I invited all of the Board of Aldermen to come to our house to see the animals, setups, how we do things, and answer any questions. Janet Sanders (Planning & Development Manager) agreed to act as a liaison between myself and the Aldermen to schedule a meeting. The meeting was scheduled for 2 Mar at 1600. Tara and I both took off work that day. Eight of the nine Aldermen attended as well as Janet Sanders. We conducted the tour and gave an overview of the animals, how they are kept, fed, etc. Questions were asked and answered. During the questioning, one of the Aldermen, Mr Larry Cunningham (who had previously made it well known that he would NEVER be objective when it came to the vote) stated that I “must be independently wealthy” to do all that we did with the animals. I responded that like any hobby, it takes money and that was the way we spent ours. I pointed out the fact that we didn’t have two BMWs parked in the driveway. That both of our vehicles had over 100k miles each. In other words, he stood in my house upon MY invitation and insulted me. Real professional right? The guy is an asshole and he demonstrates it well. That brings us back to the 3’ x 5’ sign was AGAIN placed in our front yard two days after the meeting on 19 Feb. Letters were again sent out to all households within 185 ft of our home. So 16 Mar rolls around and the meeting quickly becomes the biggest fiasco to date in this saga. We had several local folks speak in support of our efforts. Up until this meeting the only person to appear in person for the opposition had been Dennis Lowe. That changed with this meeting. Enter Mrs Arika Winborne who happens to be Dennis’s next door neighbor. She is a choir teacher at the Jackson R2 high school. She spoke in opposition and had a packet of information for each Alderman. During her presentation to the Board, she spoke in a very condescending manner as if she was giving a stern lecture to a group of 15 year old sophomores. I have been an Instructor in the Army Reserve for almost 20 years and would NEVER make a presentation in the manner in which Mrs Winborne delivered. Since I have mentioned Dennis’s attempts at garnering sympathy due to his bouts with cancer in part two, I’d like to take the opportunity to do the same here in part three. I am and have been a member of the Army Reserve since I was 17 years old. I joined between my junior and senior years of high school. I had to have my parents sign to allow me to join. I wasn’t even old enough to vote. I joined and I have never had a break in service. All that doesn’t mean shit and I don’t really care but since Dennis tries to garner sympathy whenever possible, that was my attempt at doing the same but then once again, I digress. Back to Mrs Winborne. Apparently she had gone through the neighborhood gathering signatures in opposition to our permit request. She managed to gather 35 signatures. I’ll say this, an intelligent person can craft a petition stating just about anything they want in such a way that the vast majority of those asked to sign will sign it. One of those neighbors she approached who lives one block up from us refused to sign. He subsequently came to our house stating that someone approached him with a petition and did not sign but wanted to talk to us. As he stated, there are two sides to every story. Damn right there is. Anyway, we happily took him downstairs to show him the animals. He asked several questions and asked for clarification as to whether there were any large snakes or venomous animals in our care. Which there are not. He thanked us for our time and left. ONE person folks. ONE person came by to talk to us. No one else approached us. No one asked any questions. Not one other person. The meeting continued after Mrs Winborne delivered her lecture, and the Board voted to table the vote until the next regularly scheduled meeting. By state statures, they required to deliver an up or down vote no more than three meetings in. Of those 35 signatures that Mrs Winborne gathered, the only ones that count are the households within 185 feet of our home. State statutes state that if 30% or more of the households within 185 feet are in opposition, it forces the vote to a super majority. The signatures represented 32% of those within 185 feet so that requires a 2/3rd vote (6 out of 9) for the permit to pass. Before this it would have only required a simple majority. The final vote will be conducted by a virtual Board of Aldermen meeting which will be broadcast on YouTube tomorrow evening (6 Apr) at 1800 (6PM) Central time. Here is the link:http://www.jacksonmo.org/viewSo now can you see why we feel shit on, abus