Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Wellfleet are held online and in person. Go to www.wellfleet-ma.gov/calendar and click on the meeting you want to watch, then follow the instructions on the agenda.
Monday, Dec. 2
- Nauset Regional School District Budget and Finance Subcommittee, 3:30 p.m., Admin. Bldg., Orleans
- NRSD Capital Asset Subcommittee, 5 p.m., Admin. Bldg., Orleans
- Shellfish Advisory Board, 6 p.m., Adult Community Center and online
Tuesday, Dec. 3
- NRSC Building Use Subcommittee, 5:30 p.m.
- Select board, 6 p.m., Adult Community Center and online
Wednesday, Dec. 4
- Planning Board, 7 p.m., Adult Community Center and online
Conversation Starter
Meet Billy the Rooster
Board of health members went on a field trip in October to visit a chicken coop and a rooster named Billy for the purpose of considering the volume of Billy’s crowing, about which the neighbors had complained. The minutes of the board’s Oct. 9 meeting recount the excursion in detail.
It seems that Billy’s owner, Matthew Tavalone, ordered five hens from a hatchery, but one turned out to be a rooster. The hatchery refunded Tavalone’s money for the bird, but, he told the board, it wouldn’t take Billy back. After a predator broke into the chicken coop and killed three hens, Tavalone replaced the hens with three pullets. Now Billy lives with the surviving hen, Peanut, as well as Minnie, Molly, and Missy.
The board had received four letters expressing “dissatisfaction with the noise from Billy,” and one “expressing support for keeping him.” One of the neighbors who wanted Billy rehoused said his noise was “unsettling” and “more disturbing than man-made noises.”
Tavalone told board members he had tried to quiet Billy by fitting him with a special collar advertised for the purpose, “but that did not work,” the minutes read. Tavalone and his father then built a new shed fitted with soundproofing where Billy is kept at night.
The board of health deliberated. Chair Nick Picariello read the definition of a “public nuisance.” Health Agent Heith Martinez installed a decibel reading application on his phone. “The board had difficulty goading Billy into crowing,” according to the minutes. But Billy did crow, after which Martinez determined that the noise was compatible with background noise — acceptable, at least by day.
The board agreed to continue the hearing to Feb. 12 so Tavalone could follow the suggestion of board member Janet Drohan and get advice from seasoned farmers on how best to calm Billy’s crowing. —Sam Pollak
