The city of Benton Harbor is being asked to allow a limited exception to an ordinance prohibiting the raising of chickens in the community.

The city Communications and Public Relations Committee this past week heard from Intercare family nurse practitioner Michael Jaskiewicz, who runs the health service’s Student Health Center at Benton Harbor High School. She said the state-funded clinic offers a full range of health services to students.

“The Student Health Center serves any youth basically that walks in the door,” Jaskiewicz said. “We just changed our ages recently, so we’re ages three to 22. We provide full medical care just like they would get their medical care at the main Benton or the main Intercare site. It’s the exact same care that they’re getting at the Student Health Center.”

Jaskiewicz said students are heavily involved in managing the clinic.

“We have a teen advisory council that meets every week, and we use that teen advisory council to put out health information to the school. Basically, the kids are helping us figure out what’s important to the school and then bring that directly to them based on what the youth are telling us. It’s with that youth that we’ve developed lots of the things that we have so far.”

One thing Jaskiewicz and the council have been studying is the addition of a chicken coop to help boost the well-being of students.

“One of our big focuses is mental health and young people being outside, doing outdoor things and its effect on mental health. It creates a calming hands-on outdoor activity that gets students away from screens. The purpose and the responsibility is that the students would care for the animals.”

Jaskiewicz said she obtained a grant to add more outdoor features to the clinic, including the garden and a planned memorial park. Her grant application also anticipated the addition of the chicken coop, but then she learned they’re not allowed in Benton Harbor.

“I went back to double check it after we received those grant funds. We purchased everything needed for the chicken coop in the garden, saw that we couldn’t have them in the city, and at that time, I started trying to contact folks to see if there’s anything that could be changed so that we could get these chickens.”

She asked city commissioners for an exception to the existing rules.

“So we would have a very narrow exception pilot for the high school site, only for the high school site. A written coop plan, site plan, animal care plan approved before anything happens.”

Jaskiewicz said members of the Student Health Center teen advisory council would be primarily responsible for raising the chickens, and safety guidelines would be followed. She said the pilot plan would be well-defined and documented, submitting to an annual review.

Commissioner Diedre Fields expressed interest in the Intercare proposal, but said the committee couldn’t advance this particular request, partly because it lacked a quorum for the meeting. She recommended the question be brought to the city Legislative Committee. City Manager Alex Little added he’s got an open mind and will look into the implications of the clinic’s request.

The matter could come back up for review by the city Legislative Committee or even the full Benton Harbor City Commission.