Two City of Jefferson ordinances are being looked at for some changes.

The Jefferson City Council recently approved the first reading to amend its ordinance concerning vicious and illegal dogs. City Administrator Mike Palmer says the proposed change is to add anytime a dog is deemed vicious or illegal, the animal must be impounded and microchipped before being placed outside of the city limits for three years. 

“One of the problems the police department has is which animal is it? Later on, they catch a dog that’s vicious. Was that one we already impounded? We don’t know. They have pictures but a lot of times German Shepherds all can kind of start looking the same. So with a microchip in there they can just scan it and say, ‘This was the vicious dog that we had impounded.’” 

The other ordinance amended that the Council approved the first reading of was adding a service fee for when the fire department responds to large structure fires. Palmer describes an example of why this amendment was proposed.

“This is something that actually kind of came off the Landus fire of their grain bins (from last year). We found that insurance companies tend not to reimburse if there’s not something on the city’s books or ordinances that allows the city to charge back for services on the some of the larger events like that. In the past, insurance companies have reimbursed the city for expenses. But now they are tightening down a lot on that and they want to see that it’s actually codified.”  

The Council must go through two more required readings of the ordinance changes before those go into effect.