4A j The BirminghamNews Wednesday, January 20, 2010FROM PAGE ONE**

OFFENDERS:Limited placesthey can liveFrom Page 1A

NEWS STAFF

Birmingham

Mulga

Birmingham to house morethan one registered sex of-fender under a roof. Mulgaofficials said they want thesame limits applied to theirtown.

“We don’t feel Mulgashould be any more respon-sible for housing a dispro-portionate number of sexoffenders than Birmingham,who has an endless amountof resources to deal withthose issues,” city attorneyBen Goldman said.

Mayor Dennis McCrarysaid residents are aware ofthe problem.

“People are afraid theycan’t let their kids out andplay in their front yards,”McCrary said. “That ain’tright.”

State Sen. Priscilla Dunn,D-Bessemer, met recentlywith Mulga officials and saidextending the Birminghamlimits to include Mulga maybe the answer.

“Mulga is such a smalltown to have all of those,”said Dunn, whose districtincludes Mulga. “I can seetheir concern.”

Town officials have spo-ken with county school offi-cials about making sure busroutes take into account theaddresses where offenderslive in Mulga, said Goldman.

Rosie Parker, who ownsthe three-bedroom board-ing house on First Avenue,said she only recently beganhousing offenders.

The town council is con-sidering revoking Parker’sbusiness license because itlimits the number of board-ers she can house.

Parker said the offendersliving in the house includeher brother. She said theyhave not caused any prob-lems for her or for neigh-bors.

“They are so glad to havesomewhere to stay, they’reafraid to go back (to jail).They’re afraid to even go outof the house,” Parker said.

Jefferson County DeputySheriff Randy Christian saidthree of the four living atParker’s boarding househave been arrested in thepast for violation of the sexoffender act.

He said word may be get-ting out among offendersthat Mulga is a destinationthat meets state residencyrequirements.

“I do not believe these of-fenders are being funneledinto small towns such asMulga, but the locations inwhich they reside lawfullyare limited,” Christian said.

Joe Lester, professor oflaw at Jones School of Lawin Montgomery, said he’snot surprised issues such asthe one in Mulga have sur-faced.

Lester, who has writtenabout sex offender restric-tions, said that given theway laws limit where sex of-fenders can reside, offend-ers are being pushed intomore remote areas andsmall towns. Those townsthen find themselves tryingto adopt laws to stem theflow of offenders looking forhomes.

“Whoever acts first isgoing to rid their town of thesex offenders or push themout to places where theydon’t have such legislation,”he said. “If everybody enactssuch a law, then where dothey go?”

Lester said it is not politi-cally expedient for poli-ticians to be seen as passinglaws that have some benefitto sex offenders.

Eventually, he said, thecourts will have to interveneon the issues of where sexoffenders can live. “It’s toopolitically sensitive for legis-lators.”

E-MAIL: tnorris@bhamnews.com

SEX OFFENDERRESTRICTIONSAlabama law prohibits adultcriminal sex offenders from:

yy LLiivviinngg wwiitthhiinn 22,,000000 ffeeeett ooffpprrooppeerrttyy oonnwwhhiicchh aa ddaayyccaarree,, sscchhooooll oorr ccoolllleeggee iissssiittuuaatteedd..

yy LLiivviinngg wwiitthhiinn 11,,000000 ffeeeett ooffpprrooppeerrttyy oonnwwhhiicchh ffoorrmmeerrvviiccttiimmss oorr vviiccttiimmss’’iimmmmeeddiiaattee ffaammiillyy lliivvee..

yy LLiivviinngg wwiitthh aa mmiinnoorr,, eexxcceeppttiinn cceerrttaaiinn ccaasseess iiff tthheemmiinnoorriiss aa cchhiilldd,, ggrraannddcchhiilldd oorrsstteeppcchhiilldd..

SSoouurrccee:: TThhee CCooddee ooff AAllaabbaammaa,,SSeeccttiioonn 1155--2200--2266..

NEWS STAFF/BEVERLY TAYLOR

Julie Nelson shows off eggs from her three chickens, named Hunt, Peck and Scratch. The chicken coop in herbackyard was designed by her husband, Michael, an architect.

CLUCK:No noisyroosters neededFrom Page 1A

to allow backyard and roof-top chicken keeping.

CLUCK founders Mi-chael and Julie Nelson,themselves a chicken-rais-ing couple, were attractedt o t h e i d e a o f u r b a nchicken farming because ofthe “convenience and op-portunity to eat organiceggs,” Julie said.

Their three pearl Leg-horn hens, Hunt, Peck andScratch (Julie uses theirnames interchangeably),live in a custom-built coopin the backyard of theirhome in south JeffersonCounty. The Nelsons live inan area that is zoned agri-cultural.

“I grew up on a farm sothis comes naturally tome,” said Julie, who devel-oped interest into a causeafter being laid off from hercorporate job. “It madesense to make a go ofsomething you really like.”

Her husband is an ar-chitect who runs his owncompany in Avondale. He

designed the fancy chickencoop in their yard.

The Nelsons have beenidentifying other urbanchicken-raising supportersand researching city zoningordinances and the processto change them.

“We’re in the embryonicstages, no pun intended,”Julie said, adding that anyordinance revisions wouldhave to result from a grass-roots movement. “Havingpro-hen ordinances wouldbenefit people becausethey would have access toconvenient fresh eggs. Inthis economy, that meanssomething.”

She also said “it’s a joy”to raise a chicken.

A spot check of the metroarea found that Birming-ham, Jefferson County,Bessemer, Hoover and Ala-baster do not allow farmanimals — including chick-ens — in residential areas.In those cities, chickens arelimited to agriculturalareas, and some ordi-nances require minimumacreage on which chickensmay live.

In Homewood, however,chickens and other fowl areallowed in residential areasif there is no noise, odor orpollution and the chickensare kept at least 300 feet

from adjacent buildings.Columbiana’s ordinance

allows chickens in resi-dential areas if there is nonoise, odor or pollution.

Most ordinances thatprohibit chickens weremade because of noiseconcerns, Macklin said. Butthe cock-a-doodle-doo thatcomes to mind is actuallythe calling card of therooster, a male chicken.The typically hush-hushhen may give a two- tothree-minute “egg song”after she lays an egg, Nel-son said. A hen does nothave to mate with a roosterto lay an egg.

Advocates say raisingchickens allows for greatercontrol of what chickenseat, in turn producing a dif-ferent and better qualityegg than those sold in gro-cery stores, Macklin said.The hens are used only fortheir eggs, not for theirmeat.

“The eggs you get fromthe store are sometimes aweek or two old, which isfine, but there is a differenttaste between an egg that’sa week old and one that hasjust been laid that morn-ing,” Macklin said.

C o m p a r e d t o t h e i rhomegrown eggs, store-bought eggs are “anemic,”

Julie Nelson said.“Our egg (yolks) are

bright orange, the yolksstand up and the taste is al-most buttery,” she said. Ahen is “the only pet that’llmake you breakfast.”

Some other people arepaying attention. Birming-ham resident Hope Hamil-ton’s interest in urbanchicken raising was an of-fshoot from gardening. Sheand her roommates eateggs all the time, she said.

“I just thought there hasto be a more sustainableway to eat eggs other thanbuying them from thestore,” the 21-year-oldSamford University studentsaid. “It’s really a way tosave money and be sustain-able.”

But saving money is ac-tually a misconception,said Macklin, who is alsoan Alabama ExtensionService specialist.

“Assuming people haveall the equipment,” he said,“they’ll probably breakeven.”

CLUCK plans to meet at 6p.m. Thursday at BottletreeCafe, 3719 Third Ave.South, Birmingham. Moreinfo: Julie Nelson, 983-4229.

E-MAIL: rnance@bhamnews.com

Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010Volume 122, Edition 313

Scott Brown, aRepublicanstate senator,won theelection toreplace the lateSen. TedKennedy inMassachusetts.

AP

when House, Senate and gu-bernatorial candidates areon the ballot nationwide.

“I have no interest in sug-arcoating what happened inMassachusetts,” said Sen.Robert Menendez, the headof the Senate Democrats’c a m p a i g n c o m m i t t e e .“There is a lot of anxiety inthe country right now.Americans are understand-ably impatient.”

Brown will become the41st Republican in the100-member Senate, whichcould allow the GOP toblock the president’s healthcare legislation and the restof his agenda. Democratsneeded Coakley to win for a60th vote to thwart Republi-can filibusters.

The Republican will finishKennedy’s unexpired term,facing re-election in 2012.

Brown led 52 percent to47 percent with all but 3p e r c e n t o f p r e c i n c t scounted.

One day shy of the firstanniversary of Obama’s in-auguration, the electionplayed out amid a backdropof animosity and resent-ment from voters over per-sistently high unemploy-ment, Wall Street bailouts,exploding federal budgetdeficits and partisan wrang-ling over health care.

For weeks considered along shot, Brown seized onvoter discontent to overtakeCoakley in the campaign’sfinal stretch. His candidacyenergized Republicans, in-cluding backers of the “tea

party” protest movement,while attracting disap-pointed Democrats and in-dependents uneasy withwhere they felt the nationwas heading.

A cornerstone of Brown’scampaign was his promiseto vote against the healthcare plan.

Though the presidentwasn’t on the ballot, he wason many voters’ minds.

“I voted for Obama be-cause I wanted change. . . . Ithought he’d bring it to us,but I just don’t like the di-rection that he’s heading,”said John Triolo, 38, a regis-tered independent whovoted in Fitchburg.

He said his frustrations,including what he consid-ered the too-quick pace ofhealth care legislation, ledhim to vote for Brown.

Coakley called Brownconceding the race, andO b a m a t a l k e d t o b o t hBrown and Coakley, con-gratulating them on therace.

The Democrat said thepresident told her: “Wecan’t win them all.”

Massachusetts Secretaryof State William Galvin saidhe would notify the U.S.Senate today that Brownhad been elected. Originally,he had said he might takemore than two weeks to cer-tify the results of the specialelection, giving Democrats awindow in which to try torush through final passageof Obama’s health careplan.

Senate Majority LeaderHarry Reid, D-Nev., prom-ised to seat Brown “as soonas the proper paperwork hasbeen received.”

Brown will be the first Re-publican senator from Mas-sachusetts in 30 years.

SENATE:1st GOP senatorin 30 yearsFrom Page 1A