SCARBOROUGH – Every dog gets its day, and in Scarborough that day will be Dec. 3.

At its Nov. 6 meeting, the Town Council formally accepted a petition to undo a town-wide leash law it adopted on Oct. 2, setting the dates for a public hearing and referendum vote.

Absentee ballots are available now at Town Hall and may be requested in person or through the mail until Nov. 27. Voting on Tuesday, Dec. 3, will take place from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. at town hall. Any absentee ballots obtained before the 27th can be returned up until closing of the polls.

What voters will see on their ballots may seem confusing to some. Based on the requirements of the town charter, the referendum question asks voters if they want to approve the council’s Oct. 2 vote to update the town’s animal control ordinance.

That change requires that dogs be kept on a leash when on any public property, including streets, sidewalks, beaches and wooded areas. The mandate is year-round, with the only exceptions being for hunting dogs when at work, or when in “specially designated areas,” which have yet to be created. Previously, the only formal leash requirement in town apart from state law was a restriction on municipal beaches from 9 a.m. to sunset, which lasted only from June 15 to Sept. 15.

Given the ballot language, a “no” vote would be to repeal the new rules, which the town has not yet tried to enforce, given the petition drive. Although many residents, based on the 2,743 signatures turned in, may be going to the polls to overturn the vote, a “yes” vote would uphold it.

The council agreed to have a primer posted in the town clerk’s office though the election advising what each vote means. A notice also will be posted at the entrance to Council Chambers B, where voting will take place on Dec. 3, although residents will not be able to take that explanation into the voting booths.

Lucky Lane resident Katy Foley, the lead petitioner of the overturn attempt, asked that the explanation be placed on the actual ballot, but Town Manager Tom Hall said the Maine Municipal Association advises against such guidance being printed on ballot.

The town charter calls on the council to call a public hearing on the referendum vote within 30 days of being notified of a successful petition attempt. On behalf of Dog Owners of Greater Scarborough, Foley submitted petition signatures to the town on Oct. 16. Town Clerk Tody Justice confirmed on Oct. 21 that the group had cleared the required threshold – signatures from 25 percent of the total residents who voted in the most recent gubernatorial election. The council held the required public hearing at its Nov. 6 meeting. The charter then calls on the council to set the election date within 30 days of the hearing, which the Dec. 3 date fulfills.

Although recent council meetings have filled to overflowing with members of Dog Owners of Greater Scarborough speaking out against the ordinance change, often running the public comment period to more than twice its mandated 30-minute length, Foley was the only person to speak Nov. 6.

“There’s been a little bit of a misconception that we want to open the whole town of Scarborough up to dogs running wildly 24 hours a day,” she said. “That’s simply just not true. We get that not everybody loves dogs the way that we do. We get that there are some irresponsible dog owners out there not obeying the current ordinance and not controlling their pets.

“We want it very clear that we do understand there may be more work to do on this ordinance in the future,” said Foley. “We welcome an opportunity to participate in those conversations. But at this point, we really felt like we had no choice but to push forward with the campaign to overturn the overly restrictive ordinance.”

Dog Owners of Greater Scarborough, launched as an ad hoc group to promote grassroots advocacy on the leash issue, has since become a formal political action committee, enabling it to raise and spend money on the coming campaign.

As most Scarborough residents are by now aware, the new leash law stems from the killing of an endangered piping plover chick on July 15 on Pine Point Beach.

Although the owner of the dog in question was never fined, the town itself was subjected to an investigation launched by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which eventually levied a $12,000 fine against the town for violating the Endangered Species Act because, the feds say, it “did knowingly cause” the killing by failing to institute a more stringent leash law during the plover nesting season.

At the time of the killing, dogs were allowed to run free on municipal beaches from sunrise until 9 a.m., from June 15 to Sept. 15. They were banned from the beach during those months from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and could be present from 5 p.m. until sunset only when on a leash. There were no leash restrictions in place from Sept. 16 to June 14.

An agreement with U.S. Fish and Wildlife negotiated by the town manager and approved by the council in a 5-2 vote at its Oct. 2 meeting reduced the fine to just $500 in return for a number of concessions. Among these was adoption of a leash restriction on beaches at all times from April 1 to Aug. 31. However, in a surprise move, the council voted 5-2 to institute the all-encompassing, year-round leash law instead.

Saying he felt that decision “went too far,” Chairman Ron Ahlquist called for reconsideration of the vote at the Oct. 16 council meeting, a move that failed in a 3-3 vote with Councilor Richard Sullivan absent.