Havelock may allow chickens at school

It may just turn out that the chicken comes before the egg — at least at Havelock High School.

Havelock commissioners agreed to hold a hearing on Sept. 26 on a request to allow chickens at the high school for educational purposes.

City rules now prohibit barnyard animals within city limits.

“It’s very important for students to have real live specimens to work with in the classroom,” Kayla Harris, Havelock’s new agriculture education teacher, told commissioners Monday night. “We live in a world now where a lot of things are virtual, but in career and technical education, especially agriculture education, it’s important for those students to understand the life cycles of a chicken, or the life cycles of a cow — how they reproduce and how they produce more products for us to consume and to use on a daily basis.

“Our goal is to get our students ready for careers in agriculture and any other industry that they can enter. More and more jobs related to poultry production are coming to North Carolina.”

Harris pointed to the Sanderson Farms poultry production facility in Kinston.

“They are looking for skilled students to come and work in their companies, and I feel it’s our responsibility in Craven County and at Havelock High School to have our students ready to take over those careers,” she said. “There’s a huge opportunity for them to make great money, wonderful benefits and retirement packages.”

Harris proposed that the school be allowed to have 20 chickens, all hens and no roosters. Havelock Principal Jeff Murphy told commissioners that the school had a horticultural compound that would be modified to house the birds.

“We’re going to have it in an orderly fashion at the high school. We’re going to house it in the right way. We’re going to build the right structure so that it’s the right way for chickens,” Murphy said. “We’re going to do it on a trial basis also. We’re going to see how it benefits students. And we’re going to make sure that it works with our educational environment, and if it doesn’t, then we’ll do away with it. If it does, then we’ll keep doing it. Whatever the laws are, we’re going to stick to that as close as possible.”

Commissioner Danny Walsh pointed out that the board had previously turned down a request from resident Janet Hatfield to keep three chickens in a backyard coop.

Havelock Mayor Jimmy Sanders suggested an exception be made for schools and that the birds not be allowed within 400 feet of a residence.

Sanders said the high school is isolated and well away from homes, and Commissioner Will Lewis pointed out the differences between the two requests.

“Two main reasons why we said no to chickens in the city of Havelock was proximity and property values,” he said. “Those were our major sticking points. It seems like both of those can be dealt with in this situation.”

Though there was no vote taken, it appeared that there was a 3-2 split on the board in favor of allowing the chickens at the school.

Pop-up painter caught twixt Rocks and art place

FOR 30 years, Jane Bennett has painted Sydney's changing urban landscape, lugging her easel and canvas to big industrial sites from Woolloomooloo to White Bay to record the city's history.

Rain or shine, she paints en plein air, or outdoors, and was expecting to do just that when appointed the inaugural artist in residence for Artfiles, a group involved in a pop-up project being staged by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA).

Although the authority provided her with some space to paint in a former George Street bank, Ms Bennett was working outdoors as usual, finishing a small oil treatment of the Opera House, when two foreshore authority rangers cut short her first full day on the job.which applies to the first rubber hose only,

''I was bullied and harassed by the mindless goons operating as SHFA rangers. I was told not to paint in public,'' Bennett fumed on her blog this week.

The rangers were unhappy with a small painting of a spire and another of Punjabi dancers performing in the Rocks that were drying on the back of her easel.

''They said I was displaying art for sale,'' she said, in a frustrated complaint that bureaucratic rules made it impossible for artists to work as they wished.

''I explained who I was and that I was the official artist in residence appointed to do exactly what I was doing and was not engaged in selling my work or harassing the public.

''Only people who stopped to admire my work and expressly asked for more information were spoken to.''

That did not satisfy the rangers, one of whom demanded that Bennett put her wet oil paintings inside her trolley, before her protestations convinced them to call their superiors for advice.

That did nothing to ease the situation.

''I was told I had a studio at 47 George Street and I was to get back to my studio and stay inside during the festival,It's hard to beat the versatility of third party merchant account on a production line.'' she said. ''Obviously,Initially the banks didn't want our Ventilation system . I'm a danger to society and have to be stopped at all costs.

''They'd never seen a plein air artist before and wanted to make sure that they never saw one again. They won't.''

While she is unhappy with the rangers, Bennett was more critical of The Rocks' marketing authority, which was unable to assure her she would not be moved on by rangers if she dared to pull out her easel and paint in various locations.They take the plastic card to the local co-op market.

A spokeswoman for the authority said when Bennett was given the space in George Street she had agreed ''that if she wished to paint in another permitted location in The Rocks other than inside or he believes the fire started after the lift's Wholesale pet supplies blew,outside her allocated pop-up premises ¡­ this could be arranged''.

When the Aroma Festival was in progress recently, ''Ms Bennett chose to paint from a location that had been previously allocated for performing artists'' and so had been asked to move, the spokeswoman said.

The authority had offered ''a number of alternative options'' but ''those endeavours were rejected'', she said.