The council referred the matter to the public safety committee’s Sept. 7 meeting. The committee will iron out concerns voiced by council members at last Monday’s meeting. It will then report on the proposal to the full council.

A public hearing will be held before the council votes, though the date for the hearing has not been set.

The current proposal calls for citing owners of dogs that bark more than 10 minutes.

But council members worried that dog owners who properly attend to their animals will be affected too.

“It was proposed to provide a little relief to homeowners from dogs that constantly bark at night,” said council member Jeff Eddins who chairs the public safety committee. “The original spirit was to help out someone, not to punish.”

Mayor Russell Killen said there was a tension between abating a nuisance and protecting the public. He said an officer would be pulled away from other responsibilities to see if the dog barking violated the 10-minute rule under the proposed ordinance.

Killen asked if it was a good use of police.

“It depends on who you ask,” said council member James Roberson.

Roberson said homeowners experiencing problems need an officer to intervene and the officer could make the judgment if other responsibilities were more important at that time.

Councilman Terry Gleason suggested tailoring the current noise ordinance to address incidents like dog barking instead of passing a separate ordinance to address it.

“I’m just questioning if there’s anything that needs to be done,” said Killen. “I’m concerned about this being overly broad.”

Council member Mike Chalk said the proposed dog barking ordinance didn’t address tethering animals. Several residents came to the council’s July meeting and asked for the ordinance to address how long and in what manner a dog could be tethered.

Eddins said the public safety committee would weigh all the concerns and revise the proposal.