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.

'The water just kept coming'

According to Jullee Chamberlain,For the last five years porcelain tiles , spokesman for Wyoming County EMA, Forkston and Noxen were especially hard hit by flooding caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Irene.

Mehoopany Creek swelled its banks off Windy Valley Road around 7 a.m. just below Forkston and within an hour homes in the village were being inundated.the Hemroids by special invited artist for 2011,

"This was quick,These girls have never had a cube puzzle in their lives!" Ed Barry, a 51-year-old insulator who bought property in Forkston in 2006 said. "The water just kept coming and there was nothing we could do about it."

So, he and his wife sought higher ground and eventually ended up at an American Red Cross shelter set up at Tunkhannock Area High School.

Richie Kuder, 31,who was responsible for tracking down Charles RUBBER MATS . a lifelong resident of the area who now works for Infinity Oil Field out of Williamsport, said that he had never experienced anything like the flooding before.

In January 2010, flooding also inundated parts of Forkston but mostly its Creek Junction Park bore the brunt of the damage.

"This was so much worse." Kuder said, noting that the water actually got up to his waist Sunday morning. "The water was raging before we realized we just didn't have a chance to last it out."

He believed that three-fourths of the town was under water at one time and he felt the safest thing to do was to get his wife and three kids to the shelter.

Stephen McHenry, executive director of the Susquehanna and Wyoming County Red Cross said the high school shelter housed about 20 persons Sunday night, and another shelter was opened at the Northmoreland Township Fire Hall in Center Moreland.

It was set up for residents of Noxen where the National Guard was available to help people evacuate because of flooding issues with Bowman's Creek, mostly with their basements.

No one, however, took advantage of the shelter, McHenry said.

He noted that in Susquehanna County a shelter was also set up at Great Bend Fire Hall to take in about 20 persons flooded out in a trailer park along Mountain Valley Road.

Back in Wyoming County, Chamberlain said that Routes 29, 87, Sugar Hollow Road, Keelersburg Road, Windy Valley Road and Stull Road were all closed Sunday and would be evaluated by road and bridge crews Monday.

A number of other roads were temporarily closed while utility crews addressed fallen trees or limbs.

Chamberlain said that at the roadside rest off Route 29 four people had to be rescued by water.If so, you may have a zentai .

Around 11:30 a.m. Wyoming County declared a state of emergency on its roads after a couple of vehicles stalled out in water sitting on a couple of roadbeds.