Two persons who wanted to speak to the Jefferson city council about a situation involving abating a dog from the community after a dog bite incident last month were effectively muzzled at the council’s Sept. 12 meeting.
Jim North rose during the open forum portion of the meeting to read a statement from Allison Drewry, whose dog Lily was abated from the community after allegedly biting a child at Russell Park. Drewry addressed the council at its Aug. 22 meeting about the situation, challenging the methods Jefferson police officer Bohden Bigler used in handling the case and denying it was her dog that bit the child.
The meeting agenda says each speaker is limited to 3-5 minutes, but that limit is seldom enforced.
North was cut off by mayor Matt Gordon after 2:55. Gordon asked North to email the statement to council members.
Council member Darren Jackson reported that all council members had seen body cam video of officer Bohden Bigler’s encounters with Drewry that day. He said Bigler “acted with due diligence and properly.”
Allison Drewry’s father Noel then went to the podium to speak.
Noel Drewry said at a recent event hosted by Home State Bank for older customers, the speaker spoke about raising children who would remember the town they grew up and think favorably of it, then leave and spread their wings, and perhaps return to their home town one day.
Drewry described how Allison grew up in Jefferson, went to the University of Iowa, then Chicago, and finally Boston.
He said she came home for Christmas in 2021 and was inducted into the Greene County Sports Hall of Fame. She told her parents then that she was thinking of returning to Jefferson. She said she could work remotely in Jefferson as well as in Boston, that she could buy a rental house from her parents, and take care of them when they got older.
“I was listening to that (HSB) program and thinking that’s exactly what Allison did,” Drewry said. “She came back here and made a home in Jefferson. And Jefferson shit on her.”
At that point, Gordon stopped him, saying “I’m going to cut you off there. With the language, I’m going to have to cut you off.”
Drewry had spoken 2 minutes, 13 seconds. His was not the first profane word spoken during a council meeting. He did not have a prepared statement.
GreeneCountyNewsOnline obtained a copy of Drewry’s statement. It is posted under the Opinion tab.
Allison Drewry has left Jefferson and does not plan to return. Her statement explains why.
