CONWAY — Conway may or may not be the site of South Carolina’s first yarnbombing, but if it happens, bombs won’t be attached to the city’s hallowed live oak trees.

Several City Council members said at a Monday night meeting that they had heard from a resident who was adamantly opposed to having the hanging yarn creations on oak trees.

Conway officially voted to protect its live oaks from streets early in the 20th century and has streets that curve to preserve live oaks that predated the paving.

“My issue is not yarnbombing,” Councilwoman Jean Timbes said, “my issue is that it should not be on oak trees.”:

Yarnbombing is decorating public places with knitted creations. It got its start with a single storefront in Houston in 2005 and has spread worldwide.

Council members voted to allow the yarnbombing, but to limit it to lampposts. There were not enough votes among Council members to even allow five trees to be bombed with creations that have already been started.

Barbara Streeter of CREATE Conway which is organizing the yarnbombing, said she would talk with her knitters about the alteration, but didn’t know if they would sew up lampposts rather than trees, as had originally been requested.

The bombs, if they happen, will be put up Oct. 27 along Laurel Street starting at Second Avenue and continuing as far as knitters would like. They would stay in place until Dec. 1.

Feral cat advice

Now that the city of Conway has reached an accord with a woman who has fed feral cats in a number of locations for 15 years, there are others who would like to see officials go further.

“I just want to give you something to think about,” Frankie Bonnette told City Council members at their meeting Tuesday evening.

Bonnette presented the Council with a list of seven items she said could help in controlling and reducing the city’s feral cat population.

Among other things, Bonnette said the city needs some kind of tracking system for cats picked up by animal control and that owners should have sufficient time to seek them from a shelter before they are euthanized. Bonnette said she knows of instances where pet cats have been euthanized the morning after they are picked up, before owners had an opportunity to search for their pets.

Last week, the city and resident Gerri Dempsey reached a deal where Dempsey would not be prosecuted for creating a public nuisance by feeding feral cats and she, in turn, agreed not to feed them at businesses anymore. The city and Dempsey also are to work together to trap the cats she feeds, and they will then be taken to Coastal Animal Rescue in Murrells Inlet to be neutered.

Dempsey was at Tuesday’s meeting but did not speak. A board member of Sav-R-Cats in Surfside Beach offered to help her trap the cats she’s been feeding.

John Bonsignor, president of Sav-R-Cats, volunteered to work with the city and urged Council members to adopt a policy that feral cats will be trapped, neutered and returned to the area where they were caught.

Bonsignor said he had worked with former city officials several years ago on an agreement for the city’s treatment of feral cats, and indicated that he was surprised that he didn’t hear of charges against Dempsey until she came to him seeking help.

Bonnette also said the city should work with organizations such as Sav-R-Cats for trapping and housing feral cats, that it sponsor a local spay and neuter clinic and that it encourages residents to cover sandboxes and trash cans to make the city somewhat less attractive to feral cats.

Bonsignor acknowledged that feral animals can pose problems but that trap, neuter and return is the best way to work with them.

The city is considering additions to its animal ordinance that would limit the number of pets to four in any house.

Bonnette said that the Council should consider things such as the size of a home and the provisions it has for pets before it puts a limit on the number of pets in a home

Contact STEVE JONES at 444-1765.