The Village of Great Neck family who harbored chickens as pets in their backyard for much of last year is now apparently crying fowl over a $100 fine it was forced to pay for violations in regards to their chicken coop.
Alfred Basal, whose family kept six chickens as pets in the backyard of their Surrey Lane home, paid the fine earlier this month, Village of Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman said on Tuesday.
“He built a structure too close to the property line without getting a permit and that’s what he got the summons for,” the mayor said of Basal. “He pled guilty. (The fine) was not for the chickens.”
In April, the Village of Great Neck Board of Trustees ruled against changing a law that would have allowed the Basal’s to keep chickens as pets in their backyard.
Under the village’s code, chickens and other barnyard “nuisance” animals are prohibited from being kept within the village.
Basal said following the meeting, the chickens his family considers pets had been housed in a coop in their backyard for the past 10 months. He had previously said in March that the chickens were meant to teach his three children about the “circle of life.”
“Our kids are going to be very disappointed,” Stella Basal, Alfred’s wife, said after the April board meeting of the village’s decision to have their family’s chicken’s removed. “It’s going to have a big effect on them.”
The Basal’s chickens were recently relocated to the Restoration Farm at Old Bethpage Village Restoration, Alfred Basal said in a Newsday story on Monday.
Basal also indicated in the article that he was displeased over having to pay the $100 fine for the violations in regards to the chicken coop.
But Kreitzman said on Tuesday that the violations were necessary.
“We’re enforcing the state building and safety codes,” the mayor said.
Following last month’s, meeting Kreitzman said he met with Basal about the time period the family had to get rid of its pet chickens.
The Village of Great Neck issued Basal a “notice of violation” in February for keeping the chickens in his backyard.
“He came to me right after the meeting and said ‘can I have a couple of weeks’ and I said ‘of course you can,’” Kreitzman recalled of the conversation.
Kreitzman said he never placed an exact deadline for the removal of the chickens. The mayor said he only asked Basal to have the birds removed within a “reasonable period” of time.
Village of Great Neck Deputy Mayor Mitchell Beckerman stood behind the board of trustee’s decision on Tuesday to not update its code to allow chickens as pets.
“We’re not a farming community,” he said. “We have very close lots and it’s a quality-of-life issue. You have to consider your neighbors before you make a decision.”
Kreitzman said the village was notified by Basal when his family removed the chickens from their property. The mayor said he could not recall the exact date when the phone call occurred.
“He did call, I don’t know when,” Kreitzman said. “Chickens are not the most important topic for the village government at this point.”
Efforts to reach Basal were unavailing.
