Keota Council Discusses Banned Dog Running Wild

KEOTA – During the April 1 meeting of the Keota City Council, City Administrator Alycia Horras informed the council that she had received multiple phone calls from citizens upset about a dog running loose in town. Not only has this happened multiple times, violating the city’s running wild ordinance, but the dog is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, a breed that is banned in town. The council instructed Horras to send a letter to the dog’s owner informing them that they need to relocate the banned dog out of town.

Councilman Curt Burroughs brought up the fact that, in 1991, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that cities were allowed to ban specific breeds of dogs. Keota was sued over the city’s pitbull ban several years ago. This case was put on hold, due to Council Bluffs, a city who copied Keota’s ordinance, being in the middle of the appeals process over a similar lawsuit. Both the Southern District of Iowa and Eighth Circuit Appeals Courts upheld Council Bluffs’ pitbull ban. Burroughs stated that the law was clear that the city has the authority to ban pit bulls.

Burroughs explained that he didn’t personally have a problem with pit bulls, but that the public wanted them to be banned. “We represent a collective majority. If people are upset that they can’t have their pit bulls, they don’t come to the council to complain. They go convince a majority of their peers that the dogs are safe. And when a majority believes they’re safe, then the council has to yield to them,” said Burroughs. “And until that day comes, I don’t see a council being soft on these dogs...We have other things we want to do to grow this community...We want to spend our time on them. We’re done spending our time on dogs, and I think, moving forward, when talking to other councilmen, we’re going to get more aggressive and make a few examples, and that will tend to allow people to self-regulate. I don’t know that that’s always the best answer, but until our community collectively changes their majority opinion, we’re tied as a council.”

A concerned citizen brought up Keota's falling population, which declined from 1,009 in 2010 to 897 in 2020. He noted that populations are falling across Southeast Iowa and that keeping people is an uphill battle. He suggested the city attract people by advertising Keota as “The Center of Everywhere,” due to it being halfway between Iowa City and Ottumwa, between Mount Pleasant and Oskaloosa, between Williamsburg and Fairfield, and between Washington and Sigourney. He also suggested the city look into USDA grants for rooftop solar panels, which could help with the sewer plant costs.

Another concerned citizen brought up the fact that Cox Sanitation, the company that handles the city’s garbage and recycling, has cut back to only taking #1 and #2 types of plastic. The citizen stated he didn’t want to put plastic in landfills. Burroughs stated that, if Cox took more types of plastic, it would increase recycling costs. Councilman Heath McDonald stated that this is a problem with the recycling industry, that they only want to recycle certain things and put the rest in landfills.