State Roundup

Ann Arbor
City officials pass revised backyard chicken ordinance
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Ann Arbor officials have approved a revised backyard chicken ordinance allowing residents to keep up to six hens in residential coops.
The city council voted Monday to ease restrictions on an existing ordinance that called for neighbor consent on five-year permits for up to four hens. The revised one-year permit doesn’t require neighbor consent, but instead allows neighbors to object to permit requests within 21 days of receiving an email notification.
The Ann Arbor News reports the city’s backyard chicken ordinance has been in place since 2008.

Mount Pleasant
Downtown gets national historic designation
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. (AP) — The mid-Michigan community of Mount Pleasant is getting some historic recognition.
The Morning Sun reports this week that the downtown area has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The eight-block area known as the Mount Pleasant Historic District consists of about four dozen buildings and includes architecture dating back more than a century.
Officials say the designation by the National Park Service can help with historical reconstruction and investment. Being part of the district also allows eligible property owners to apply for tax credits toward the cost of restoration and renovation work.

Ann Arbor
Obama asks $50M cut in Great Lakes restoration effort
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — President Barack Obama’s proposed budget for 2016 seeks what it calls a $50 million “modest reduction” in a multi-year program to clean up the Great Lakes.
The president’s spending plan released Monday requests $250 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, down from $300 million appropriated for this year.
The program focuses on the lakes’ most serious long-term ecological challenges such as invasive species, toxic pollution, degraded fish and wildlife habitat and runoff from farms and cities that causes toxic algae blooms. Obama created the program after taking office in 2009. About $1.9 billion has been spent on about 2,000 projects region-wide.
U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said she was “extremely disappointed” at the proposed budget cut and said she favored an increase to $475 million in the coming fiscal year for the initiative.
Todd Ambs, campaign director of the Ann Arbor-based Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, said in a statement that the proposed cut is unacceptable. The president sought a $25 million reduction last year, but Congress kept the program at $300 million.
“This budget, for the Great Lakes, is a non-starter,” Ambs said. “We look forward to — once again — working with Republicans and Democrats in Congress to restore funding to Great Lakes protection efforts that are producing results for the environment and economy in communities across the region.”
The lakes provide drinking water to about 30 million people and are an economic pillar for eight states and two Canadian provinces.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman Liz Purchia said Monday that her agency “has made significant investments” in the Great Lakes cleanup effort over six years and would continue to do so under the proposed $250 million budget.
“With this investment, the EPA expects to continue to make progress advancing restoration,” she said in an email to The Associated Press. “The modest reduction to interagency agreements, grants, and contracts will place a greater focus on ... clean up of areas of concern, preventing and controlling the spread of invasive species, and taking steps to address the causes of harmful algal blooms in priority watersheds.”
Acting Deputy Administrator Stan Meiburg said in a statement Monday that his agency’s budget “sends a strong signal that the president is fully committed to making the investments needed to meet our mission to protect public health and the environment.”

Addison Twp.
Another sheriff’s horse hurt when coyotes chase it
ADDISON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A horse belonging to the Lapeer County sheriff’s department has been injured after being chased by coyotes at a farm in neighboring Oakland County.
The attack comes five days after coyotes killed another Lapeer sheriff’s department horse nearby.
Lapeer sheriff’s Lt. Bruce Osmon says neighbors found the mare on the ground Friday with a 2-foot-long gash on her abdomen. The site is in Addison Township, 15 miles southeast of Lapeer.
The Flint Journal says a veterinarian is taking care of the horse named Lady on a nearby farm.
Osmon says that Lady most likely was cut by running into something while being chased by coyotes. He says the coyotes also have attacked chickens and ducks on the farm.