The Adairville city council passed a pair of ordinances at Monday’s regularly scheduled meeting - one allowing for the keeping of poultry in the city limits and the other allowing for the sale of fireworks.

The poultry ordinance has been talked about for several months now, but was finally approved by the council - despite the objections of mayor Jim Wilkerson.

It was a 3-2 vote with Donna Blake, Bill Steen and Becky Tinch voting in favor of it and Danny Finch and Art Violette voting against it. Council member Tony Nichols was absent from Monday’s meeting.

“I think if people want to have chickens and their own eggs, they should be able to do that,” Steen said.

Nashville also has an ordinance that allows for its citizens to keep chickens, which was part of the reason Blake voted for it.

“If Nashville can do it, surely a little town like Adairville can do it too,” Blake said.

Some of the provisions in the ordinance are:

• All poultry must be kept in backyards. It will not be allowed to keep coops in front of houses.
• Poultry will have to be kept in “predator-proof” enclosures, which must have “a portion of which must be covered and a portion of which must not be covered.”
• Poultry must be kept enclosed at all times and cannot be permitted to run free in the city.
• Those wishing to keep poultry must own the property it will be kept on. Renters will not be allowed to keep poultry.
• There will be a $10 permit fee.
• Crowing roosters will not be allowed.
• All feed must be kept in rodent and predator-proof containers.
• No slaughtering of poultry will be allowed.

There is also a limit to the number of birds that can be kept, based on lot size. A maximum of three chickens can be kept on a lot between 3,704 and 4,940 square feet. Six can be kept if the lost is 5,000 to 10,000 square feet. 12 can be kept from 10,001 to 16,200 square feet. 15 can be kept from 16,500 up to 32,448 square feet. And there is no limit on properties over 32,448 square feet.

The council also had second reading on a law that will allow fireworks to be sold in the city limits.

Some of the requirements for selling fireworks in the city include registering annually with the state fire marshal’s office and keeping the registration certificate in a conspicuous location at the site. They must also have a working fire extinguisher on site.

The ordinance bans the selling of fireworks to anyone under the age of 18.

The council expressed interest in having another fireworks ordinance that will limit when they can be legally set off in the city.

Russellville recently passed an ordinance that severely limits the days and times citizens can shoot fireworks. That ordinance says that they can be set off on the following days:

• July 1 through July 5, between the hours of 10 a.m. and 11 p.m. each day
• December 24 and 25, between the hours of 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. each day
• From 10 a.m. on December 31 until 12:30 a.m. on January 1
• January 1 between the hours of 10 a.m. and 10 p.m.

“I liked that when I looked at it,” Blake said.

Other members of the council expressed interest in a similar ordinance.

“I know last year they went on and on - even after midnight,” Tinch said. “That should have been stopped.”