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Attorney Thomas Hamel presented his client's case to the board Monday.

Lanesborough Neighbors Negotiating Compromise in Fowl Complaint

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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Thomas Hamel and Kara Zaks left the Selectmen's office Monday night to negotiate a compromise but fell short. The two hope to reach something in the next two weeks.
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Kara Zaks is working on a compromise with her neighbor Clark Gable over the chickens and ducks she raises on her property.
 
The two live next to each other on Narragansett Avenue and Zaks has some 80 ducks and chickens, including roosters. She raises them for food and eggs, to sell for extra income, and with a passion to protect endangered species. 
 
But she owns about a half acre of land in a residential area. Gable hears the birds squawking and crowing in the early hours. He smells them. And he's even found them sneaking through the fence and waddling onto his land.
 
After some discussions in the summer, which ultimately led to town meeting tabling a proposed bylaw on backyard fowl, Gable hired an attorney and filed a nuisance complaint.
 
"My client acknowledges that Lanesborough is a right-to-farm community. That has been built into your bylaw. The bylaw in my view, in reading this, wasn't intended to create the situation that is currently taking place in a very congested, residential area," attorney Thomas Hamel, representing the Gables, said on Monday when the complaint was brought to the Board of Selectmen. 
 
After lengthy discussion with each side presenting to the board, Hamel and Zaks met privately to come up with a compromise. While an agreement wasn't reached on the complaint Monday, the two sides did come closer.
 
Zaks asked for two more weeks to talk with nearby farms to host the loudest of her animals. Resident Robert Barton offered to be a host on his farm and Zaks will be considering that option as well as some others. 
 
"It's like giving your kids to someone else. You want to make sure they are safe," she said.
 
She said if she could find something, she'd be willing to keep the more exotic birds on her property but still reduce her flock down to 30, including the louder ducks and roosters.  
 
"I'm getting rid of the two loudest things I have on my property," she said.
 
There are 30 to 40 ducks, eight roosters, and around 30 chickens. She said 20 of the birds are for sale — 20 she said she went into the winter expecting to be sold already.
 
Hamel, speaking on behalf of Gable, offered to buy those 20 at a cost he quickly estimated in his head of $750. 
 
"I will buy them all right now. We want them gone," Hamel said. 
 
But he still wants the flock to be reduced to 15 to 20.
 
"I keep suggesting to her to go back to the 2013 levels," Hamel said. 
 
Hamel says his client didn't have a problem that year when Zaks had just a small coop with around 20 birds. By the next year, there was another structure and more birds. The flock has continued to grow and Hamel presented a video taken from Gable's back yard with audio hearing the birds crow at 5 a.m.
 
"There was absolutely no opposition from my client or any of the abutters when that activity began," he said. "As it develops, more and more fowl are brought onto the scene."  
 
While Lanesborough is a right-to-farm community under state designation, that doesn't include properties with less than five acres. 
 
"The intention of the state bylaw was for large farms — what you find on Bailey Road, what you find on Route 7, not what you find on Pontoosuc Lake," Hamel said.
 
Zaks said she's trying to be a good neighbor. In August when the issue was first presented, Zaks said she ordered rooster collars. The collars restrict the birds' necks to keep them from crowing too loudly. She had some issues getting the proper fitting ones but is now adjusting them every weekend to keep the sound down. 
 
"They have to slowly be adjusted. If they are adjusted too tightly, then it could kill the rooster," she said. 
 
She says all of the adult roosters have them now and when the younger ones mature enough to crow, Zaks puts them on. 
 
"Before she had her collars, four or five months ago, in the morning I could hear them at my place. Since she's got the collars on ... I don't hear them anymore," said Gordon Zaks, her father who owns property nearby. 
 
Kara Zaks also upped her cleaning habits to ensure there are no piles of waste. And, she ordered an 8-foot fence to put up to limit Gable's visibility. That fence was just recently installed. 
 
But the noise is still too loud for Gable and the structures are still too close to his property line. Zaks said she can't move the birds elsewhere on her property because of where her septic tank is located and she needs to have a certain amount of birds to have enough not only to feed her family but to also make additional money.
 
"I am trying to create some extra income for my family because my paycheck doesn't do it. I am also raising rare and endangered ducks," Zaks said. "I would really like to be able to keep a couple of breeds to the point where I have enough genetic diversity."
 
At the special town meeting, Zaks proposed a bylaw based on the size of animals. She said the U.S. Department of Agriculture accounts for "animal units," which is essentially the average weight of a species. The USDA says 1,000 pounds of animals is the limit for an acre of land so as not to be invasive. Zaks suggested adopting a measurement of 500 pounds of animals per acre, which would allow her to have around 250 pounds
 
"I don't know if we are anywhere near of accepting a concept of 500 pounds per acre," Hamel said.
 
Board of Selectmen Chairman John Goerlach said he's looking to keep a regulation simple, which means choosing a number of fowl somebody can have on their property. 
 
"You are going to have to reduce the number. You are allowed to have a home business but you are not supposed to see the home businesses in the zoning district you are in," Goerlach said.
 
The board has received a number of animal complaints and ultimately is looking to come up with a bylaw. Whatever compromise Zaks makes with her neighbor will only last until the bylaw takes effect — she will not be grandfathered in. 
 
A bylaw likely won't be ready until the June town meeting, if that. But, when Hamels and Zaks return to the board in two weeks, the Selectmen hope to have the nuisance complaint solved and then craft something for the entire town.

Tags: animal control,   chickens,   domestic animals,   farming,   fowl,   

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Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation Scholarships

LUDLOW, Mass. — For the third year, Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation (BWPCC) will award scholarships to students from Lanesborough and Hancock. 
 
The scholarship is open to seniors at Mount Greylock Regional High School and Charles H. McCann Technical School. BWPCC will select two students from the class of 2024 to receive $1,000 scholarships.
 
The scholarships will be awarded to qualifying seniors who are planning to attend either a two- or four-year college or trade school program. Seniors must be from either Hancock or Lanesborough to be considered for the scholarship. Special consideration will be given to students with financial need, but all students are encouraged to apply.
 
The BWPCC owns and operates the Berkshire Wind Power Project, a 12 turbine, 19.6-megawatt wind farm located on Brodie Mountain in Hancock and Lanesborough. The non-profit BWPCC consists of 16 municipal utilities located in Ashburnham, Boylston, Chicopee, Groton, Holden, Hull, Ipswich, Marblehead, Paxton, Peabody, Russell, Shrewsbury, Sterling, Templeton, Wakefield, and West Boylston, and their joint action agency, the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company (MMWEC). 
 
To be considered, students must submit all required documents including a letter of recommendation from their school counselor and a letter detailing their educational and professional goals. Application and submission details will be shared with students via their school counselors. The deadline to apply is Friday, April 19.
 
 MMWEC is a not-for-profit, public corporation and political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts created by an Act of the General Court in 1975 and authorized to issue tax-exempt debt to finance a wide range of energy facilities.  MMWEC provides a variety of power supply, financial, risk management and other services to the state's consumer-owned, municipal utilities. 
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