The little village of Hebron (is it Hee'-bron or Heb'-ron?) is struggling with dog issues. Check out this morning's article on Page 1C of the Northwest Herald (or catch it at
www.nwherald.com).
What's the big deal? Who cares if a neighbor has 3-4-5 dogs that bark and howl? We all know, also, that they poop only in their own yards. A proud dog owner would never walk his pack around the block, so that the dogs could unload on a distant neighbor's grass (or sidewalk). Yeah, right...
Look, though, where the huge problem really is? "The village's zoning ordinance has for decades dictated that homes have no more than two dogs...", writes NWH reporter Brian Slupski. He continues, "Regardless, the zoning provision rarely was enforced..."
And therein lies the problem.
When villages, counties, towns and cities (even Woodstock) have ordinances (laws!) that are on the books but rarely (or never) enforced, these are "sleeping dogs", and someday someone is going to kick one of them and wake him up.
Ordinances should be review regularly and tossed when no longer needed.
For example, Crystal Lake has an ordinance against "cruising". Drive down U.S. 14, and perhaps other roads, more than twice within a timespan of several hours (I don't recall the exact number) is by a Repetitive Driving Ordinance. I checked with Crystal Lake a couple of years ago. Two tickets were written the first year and none in the next five years.
Woodstock has ordinances that prohibit parking on the "parkway", that grassy or paved section between the street and the sidewalk. Is it ever enforced, unless a resident calls the attention of the police to it? And sometimes a resident has to continue to call for enforcement at the same location, whereas one call should be sufficient to trigger attention and, after that, the police officer takes care of it.
A pet peeve of mine is blocking a sidewalk with a vehicle. A while back it took repeat calls to get police to address a daily problem at one address. Then the owner began to comply, and the police backed off. Guess what? The problem recurred and continued without further follow-up by police.
When laws are on the books, whether in Hebron or Crystal Lake or Woodstock, it is up to the town's code enforcement or police to enforce it. They really can't pick and choose which laws to enforce, especially after they receive complaints.
So, back to the Dogs of Hebron. Something about the excess number of dogs in a household attracted the Village Board's attention. Maybe that an owner didn't adequately control the barking of his dogs? Or that he had five dogs?
Possibility of a "private kennel" by special use permit was proposed. Residents should nix that idea. How about this for a compromise? Allow three dogs and enforce barking and pooping laws. Graduated fines might work, too. Allow police to enforce barking laws, so that neighbors don't have to go to court against one another.
If a neighbor's dogs are barking and howling, call the police. Most likely, they'll still be barking and howling by the time the cop gets there. Then, let the cop be the complainant. If he can hear the dogs when he drives up, then he writes the ticket, and he (the cop) goes to court.
Nobody minds a "yip" or even brief barking in the middle of the night that might alert a homeowner to an intruder. It's the barking that occurs when the homeowner isn't even home or when the TV is so loud he can't hear it.
