Police Chief Thomas Hathaway said the tweak involves changing the proposed ordinance so it reflects residential regulations and not commercial regulations.
Council at its meeting this evening agreed to table the matter until its next session so the ordinance can be reworked to allow the keeping of hives.
Council members this evening indicated they would most likely vote favorably on the ordinance change.
“I have no problem with it,” Councilman Ernest Bobbitt said.
Councilwoman Suetta Scarbrough said while growing up in Georgia her father had beehives. “I have no problem with it at all.”
James Patterson, a Roanoke Rapids beekeeper who was at this evening's meeting, was the one who pitched the idea to the county cooperative extension service. “I don't think they'll have any problems. They have bees at the White House.”
Patterson, 78, has been keeping bees all his life and maintains hives in West Virginia, Virginia and locally. “Im trying to boost beekeeping,” he said, explaining bees are better maintained in hives than out in the wild where they develop diseases.
