— A rural Alaska town is considering whether to borrow from state law and make it illegal for people to defecate or urinate in public. 
 
 If the law passes in Bethel, public excretion could be punishable by local fines as high as $200. It is already prohibited by state law, but if it is also adopted by the community, "the fine goes to the city instead of the state," City Attorney Patty Burley said Thursday. 
 
 Burley said that public defecation is not a problem in the community of 6,100, but officials wanted to update local laws to reflect state law. It's an offense found in the local laws of other communities reviewed by Burley as officials drafted the proposed changes. 
 
 City Council member Mary Sattler, who has lived in Bethel most of her life, said she has never witnessed anyone relieving themselves in public. 
 
 "There is, even among inebriated people, a desire to be modest about things like that," she said. 
 
 It's also a practice that should not be done in the open anyway, officials said. 
 
 "I can understand out in the tundra or in private somewhere behind some bushes, but no, not out in the city itself," City Council member Sharon Sigmon said, according to Bethel radio station KYUK. 
 
 Other proposed amendments to the town's peace, morals and welfare code include a ban on walking on public streets or ice roads while intoxicated if it poses a hazard for traffic in Bethel, which is about 400 miles west of Anchorage. Violators would face fines as much as $500. 
 
 The community serves as a commercial hub for dozens of Alaska Native villages in the region. 
 
 A public hearing on the proposed amendments was introduced last week. City Clerk Lori Strickler said a public hearing on the issue will be held Tuesday. 

 City of Bethel considers tweaking decency laws 
 
 At the last regular meeting, the Bethel City Council discussed an ordinance amending the city’s public decency laws. 
 
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 The City’s Public Safety and Transportation Commission introduced the ordinance that would tighten up several public decency laws. 
 
 “Our Bethel Municipal Code doesn’t have a lot of teeth in it. It’s like my dog. He has very few teeth left and if he bites you, you probably wouldn’t even know it,” Council member Sharon Sigmund said. 
 
 The amendment would make it illegal to walk on city streets or ice roads while intoxicated. 
 
 “It’s not geared to prohibit the intoxication as much as it’s geared to keep these areas of our community safe. Public streets and roads, ice roads or highways, are very dangerous areas. They have a lot of fast-moving, big vehicles. A lot of foot traffic as well. To have an intoxicated person in those particular areas makes for an exponentially greater risk of harm not only to the person who’s intoxicated, but anyone who’s traveling on those roadways,” Sigmund said. 
 
 The amendment would add language against littering and defacing property, shoplifting and selling tobacco to minors. 
 
 The ordinance would also prohibit public excretion within the city. 
 
 “I can understand out in the tundra or in private somewhere behind some bushes, but no not out in the city itself. This should not be going on,” Sigmund said. 
 
 Council member Rick Robb said he supports much of the ordinance, but has a problem with the public intoxication language. 
 
 “I can’t support that particular section. I understand people can be a menace, but there’s other ways to handle it than outlawing drunk walking,” He said. 
 
 Council member Mary Sattler disagreed. 
 
 “We have 75 cabs that run day and night. We have people who are designated drivers. And, quite frankly, in weather conditions like we have right now where it’s 40 below, walking down the road drunk is dangerous drinking,” Sattler said. 
 
 Another issue is where the citation money will go. Right now, state statues do outlaw public intoxication and other decency laws, but since the BMC has not been updated to reflect that, the state gets the money from the fines. 
 
 “What it (would be) doing is diverting the funds, which is copied verbatim from state law from going to the state and going to the city instead. Same ticket, same workload same everything. But the money is going to the city instead,” said City Attorney Patti Burley. 
 
 The city council voted to introduce the ordinance and will discuss it at future meetings.
– Defecating and urinating in public are already against the law in Alaska, but one small town 400 miles west of Anchorage is considering a ban of its own—and the proposed ordinance doesn't stop there. The move to beef up Bethel's public decency laws would also bar residents in the town of 6,100 from walking on city streets while drunk, reports KYUK. Doing so would allow the fines for such behavior (up to $200 in the case of public defecation) to enter the town's coffers, instead of the state's, reports the AP. But the proposed ban might not be a cash cow: "There is, even among inebriated people, a desire to be modest about things like [defecating in public]," says one council member, who professed to never having seen such an act occur. (Though another admitted to understanding the need to do it "out in the tundra or in private somewhere behind some bushes, but no, not out in the city itself.") And while some council members argue that the public intoxication ban would keep the community safe, not everyone is convinced. Says a third council member, "I understand people can be a menace, but there’s other ways to handle it than outlawing drunk walking." A public hearing on the amendment, which would also touch on things like littering and selling cigarettes to minors, is scheduled for Tuesday.