Hen Issue Lays Dormant in La Grange While New President Does Research

Wearing a T-shirt that read “Papa Hen,” Jeff Cogelja again stood before the La Grange trustees Monday night leading the charge to overturn the village’s chicken ban.

But new Village President Tom Livingston didn’t have any immediate answers.

“I will openly admit I’m woefully unaware of the facts of this,” he said.

Cogelja first tried to get the village to welcome chickens as pets in April 2012. For seven months last year, he housed four hens in a backyard coop.

Former Village President Liz Asperger said during an October board meeting that trustees polled their neighbors and received a “considerably negative” response. Residents worried about noise, odor and disease, among other issues, she said.

The board forced him to send the hens elsewhere in November, citing neighbor complaints.

Cogelja rebounded by circulating a petition over the holidays in an attempt to get a referendum on the April ballot. He said he got 340 signatures.

“Many, many of those people told me they would rather have hens next door than dogs or cats or smoke from fire pits,” Cogelja said at Monday’s meeting. 

Livingston said after the meeting that he didn’t know much about the issue but would do some research—but by doing so, he didn’t want to set a precedent.

“I’m not inclined to go back in time and revisit every political measure the village has taken in the past,” he said.

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Man Hopes New Board Members Give a Cluck about Chickens in La Grange