Concerns over roaming pit bull brought to village council
By TRACI L. WEISENBACH
For the Advertiser
SEBEWAING — Recently, a pit bull approached a Sebewaing resident’s yard from a neighboring home, upsetting the man and scaring his young girl to the point where she is anxious about going outside.
“Why should my little girl be afraid to play outside in Sebewaing, Michigan?” asked the resident, Jeff Horton, who lives on Beck Street.
Horton spoke with the village council during its meeting this week about his concerns regarding dogs at large in town, particularly “vicious dogs” like pit bulls. He said he’s called the Sebewaing police more than once about a neighbor’s pit bull coming to his yard. He became especially concerned when he found out that another pit bull owned by the same neighbors recently bit a young girl inside the dog owners’ home. The girl had to go to University of Michigan Hospital for her injuries, Horton said.
“There needs to be stricter dog control — either strongly enforcing the ordinances we have or adding to the ordinances,” he said. “I don’t think we need pit bulls running loose in town.”
Horton said if a dog is roaming around and the owner of the dog is known, that owner should be ticketed the first time, particularly if the dog is a pit bull or a rottweiler, which have reputations of being more vicious than other breeds. He said he found a statistic that said two-thirds of hospital visits due to dog bites were caused by either pit bulls or rottweilers.
Larry Heider, village council vice president, said police wouldn’t be able to give out a ticket for one breed of dog and not another.
“Why not?” Horton asked.
“(We’d) get sued,” Heider said.
As for the incident with the young girl being bit, Heider said the Sebewaing Police checked into whether the owner of the pit bull could be ticketed, and the Huron County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office advised against it because the incident happened inside the owners’ home. Heider noted the dog was quarantined as required. He said the owners did everything they needed to do.
Sebewaing Police Chief Bill Owens agreed that the owners did everything they were directed to do in the situation. He said there were no witnesses when the dog actually bit the girl, so the circumstances surrounding the bite are unknown, such as if the dog was provoked.
Council member Vicky Kindler reviewed the village’s ordinance regarding dog bites and she said there was nothing in the ordinance that specified that an owner could not be ticketed if the bite occurred inside a home. Owens informed her that under state law, it does make a difference.
Owens further noted the dog that bit the young girl “is gone for good.” Kindler called it a “very unfortunate situation” and she sympathizes with both the girl’s family and the dog owners.
Owens said as for the police being tougher on owners with certain types of dog breeds, he said the City of Saginaw “lost a lot of money” over trying that tactic.
“I’ve been bitten about 20 or 30 times in my life, and mostly by the little ankle biters,” Owens said, referring to small breeds.
Horton wondered what could be done locally about the dogs-at-large issue, and Heider said he would work with Owens on tweaking the village ordinance so it would protect residents while still being fair to dog owners.
Village President Sami Khoury agreed that working on the dogs-at-large ordinance would be a good idea to protect village residents.
“We don’t need another dog bite,” he said.
Heider noted there hasn’t been much of a problem in the village with dog bites.
Also during the meeting this week, the village council heard from John and Rhonda Ellenbaum, who plan to purchase the former Independent Bank location in downtown Sebewaing and turn it into a church. They wanted to know if the village council would have an issue with changing the zoning.
“We’re hoping it will be a benefit to the community,” Rhonda Ellenbaum said.
Khoury said having a church in the empty building would be much better than having it remain empty, noting that many of the closed Independent Bank locations in the Thumb are sitting empty and are deteriorating.
“You have our blessing,” Khoury told the Ellenbaums.
Heider said it wouldn’t be a bad idea if the council checks with the village attorney before any zoning changes are approved, just to make sure.
Kindler asked how much money the village would lose in property taxes if the former bank became a church. The Ellenbaums, who had paperwork with them, stated the loss would be just more than $3,000 a year.
In other action:
• The council approved the letter to be sent to local fundraising groups who previously have conducted fundraisers in the village roadways. The letter informs them these types of fundraisers will no longer be allowed due to state law. Khoury voted no, as he believes the village should not enforce this statute.
• Council members heard there are at least two people who are interested in the deputy clerk position. Both had applied for the clerk position, which has since been filled by Lois Kroll. The two interested people will be given an opportunity to be interviewed in the near future.