Meet the Face Behind the City's Ordinance to Allow Chickens

With the city of Glasgow's ordinance to allow chickens set for the first reading next Monday, Aug. 20, the Courier sat down with the person behind the push to end the prohibition on the birds in backyards. Madelyn House says that when she moved into her new house she was overly excited to continue on her tradition of keeping backyard chickens. Needless to say she was shocked that city ordinances prevented chickens from being kept within city limits.

House said that a couple weeks after learning the city forbid chickens she was reading on Facebook and other opinions that a number of people were interested in allowing chickens in town as well. After posting her proposal on social media and receiving a wide array of support, House decided to take her idea to the next level.

While floating the idea around town House says, "We received a lot of positivity (for chickens) and we got some concerns." House said she took those concerns and set out doing research for her cause. Part of that research was to write to nearly every city in Montana that already allowed the birds, and get feedback on what the real impacts had been as a result of allowing coops inside those towns.

House said that nearly every town responded with positive feedback, and she produced a file of the responses from town mayors, law enforcement and animal control from across the state. One mayor even wrote in to express how he had opposed the idea as a city councilman, but that after reaping the rewards of the ordinance and seeing the positivity he said he would change his mind and vote in favor today.

Other measures House took were meeting with Glasgow Mayor Becky Erickson and discuss how to make the change happen. She then presented it to the city council and met with the ordinance committee to draft the legal language. House said that the discussion at the ordinance was quite the negotiation, but that she was well prepared. "I think my experience garage sale haggling really put me in a place to negotiate," explained House, only half-joking.

House has impressed many with her motivation in starting a campaign to change the city ordinance and effect change in the community. City council member Stan Ozark praised her initiative in the last city council meeting held on Aug. 6, and even the Courier's editor (and author of this story) published an oped praising her initiative for taking on the challenge of changing her circumstances.

When asked how she felt about being so involved in a local issue in this way, House seemed as shocked as everyone else to be so deeply involved. "I think that moving here has made me want to get more involved in the community," said House, about leading the charge on changing the city ordinance in such a small town. House went on to describe how living in a small town, when compared to her original home in Portland, had compelled her to be more involved in the community and in finding ways to make change a reality.

When asked whether she was looking forward to the Aug. 20 meeting to discuss the first reading House was unflinching in saying, "My hope is that lots of people will come out and share their thoughts whether for or against."