The Biggest Controversies From the Smallest Towns

1.

2.

Swans in the local rivers/lakes have been dying from avian flu and we’ve all been warned to keep our dogs away from sick or dead swans in case infection spreads to humansReddit quote, u/allywillow

3.

Thousands of crabs washed ashore dead but nobody really knows why, I think they blamed wind turbines at one point. Dogs are now getting really sick and there are warnings for people to stay away from the beach but nobody knows why it’s happening.Reddit quote, u/MariahCareysButthole

4.

While fleeing another hit and run, and possible DUI, some dude tried to go full speed directly thru the middle of our town square. The problem with that is we have a big historic fountain there. Traffic is usually supposed to swerve around the fountain, he did not. This dude in a white SUV ramps into our fountain, and smashes into the center pillar. Thankfully the fountain was off for the winter, so there was less damage, but they still have no clue how, and how much money it’s gonna take to fix this mess. The car was removed, but the fountain is still wrapped up in its tarp a month later. There’s security cam footage of the ramp and it’s all anyone could talk about for a few weeks.Reddit quote, u/raven_1313

5.

A woman known as a pretty awful person disappeared. "Everyone" knows it was probably her husband, but the family owns over 10,000 acres and no body has been found. The rest of her family is ramping up an awareness campaign so should be interesting to see where this all goes.Reddit quote, u/Ordo_501

6.

A guy wanted to bury his parents on their (parents’) slightly rural, totally out of the way, virtually-no-neighbors property, but the village said no way. We don’t do that here. We’re classy. So he went to the state for permission to build a funeral home/crematorium instead, and he built a giant mausoleum with both their caskets right on the corner of the property where everyone and their grandma can see it when they drive by! And he has zero plans to actually turn this into a functioning business. It’s about half done, no landscaping, and construction vehicles parked all over the place. Gotta hand it to him!Reddit quote, u/Axel0812

7.

A couple promised a lot of cakes and fancy breads to the local festival and didn't deliverEveryone is mad at them for the last 2 weeksReddit quote, u/ChangeWinter6643

8.

So we had a guy who was quite the Libertarian. He owned a gun store in town and pretty much kept to himself. He will be known as LibGuyThe problem started when he decided to have chickens for his own eggs but he lived within the city proper which had a rule against farm animals within the city (this is a rural farming area I live in). One of the city council members (he shall be known as A-hole) discovered he had chickens a few weeks after he got them and the city sent him a letter telling him he had to get rid of them. Well, he was not going to go down without a fight. So he spent some time looking into things and discovered the A-hole who reported him lived within the city and he also had chickens. Well, this of course caused a bit of a scandal. The city ended up claiming there was a grandfather clause for anyone who had livestock within the city prior to the rule change 17 years ago. The problem with that was that clause applied to the A-hole's father, not the A-hole who lived at the same address. Needless to say, the war was on! A couple of weeks go by and the town cops are messing with Libguy over petty shit. Libguy somehow gets a recording of A-hole calling the police and lying to them about what Libguy was doing. Police now want to charge Libguy for some absurd ridiculous recording law that really doesn't apply since it was someone with the police dept who gave him the tape not that he stole it. This gets blown up to the point where the bigger cities’ news crews are now showing up to city council meetings that are being called to address this issue. These meetings are getting absurdly blown out of proportion and in all honesty somewhat slimy and icky in how the city is handling it. Libguy subpoenas the city council emails to show there was a concerted effort to fuck with him and cover for A-hole. Well in the course of getting the Emails it was discovered that there was a sexting issue going on between three of the city council members. LMAO, believe me when I say this did not involve people that would be considered sexy. all three (2 women and 1 male) were married, 200lbs plus, and in their 50's. I mean Emails about double-dildos, pegging, swinging...etc..It was hilarious. In the end, the Libguy got the last laugh. he lost his chickens but found a loophole where he could actually own Llamas in the city since they were not considered livestock. So he put up a fence all around his yard (ugly chicken wire fence) just tall enough so the Llamas could not get out by jumping. People actually would go by walking their dogs and pet the Llamas. The problem though was that Llamas shit like cows and it stinks in such a small enclosure. This went on for about a year until he sold his house and moved (it stunk for at least a block around his property and he lived right behind the town's grocery store). Two of the council members involved got divorced over the sexting issue and the third one sold her bar because of it. This was the infamous chicken scandal that plagued my town of 4K for 3 years. - u/blgiant

9.

Town of about 1800. The girl's volleyball coach got a DWI. The school's principal went to pick her up from jail and was arrested for DWI himself. Somehow it got out that these two (both married) were having an affair.Reddit quote, u/stickshaker73

10.

Not current but it needs to be documented in history - the serial Catnapper.A couple lost their cat so they went knocking door to door in our town, and came across their cat crying in a random home's front window. They call the police who arrive and find 50+ missing cats, along with a fucking graveyard of cats in the garden. Some that had been missing for up to 7 years. It culminated in the catnapper, a 50+ year old woman, stuffing as many cats as she could in a car and going on a police chase through our little town. Most of the cats were identified and taken home, a very small few went to rescue centers, and the catnapper is currently going under mental health treatment. Apparently, she just took home any cat she saw while on a walk for the last 7 years.This happened about a couple of years back but I had to tell the tale.Reddit quote, u/Creditive

11.

I don't live in a small town but my small bit of the city was amused today. A woman posted in the local neighborhood Facebook group to say a woman had knocked on her door at 6:25 am. The reason was she had tracked her missing husband’s phone to the address. He had not come back the night before. The man was not there and the poster was a bit concerned. This led to much chat about burglaries and whether she should post the ring doorbell footage. A man then joined the thread to apologize. It was the missing man. He had got drunk at the football and ended up falling asleep in the house next door to the woman who posted on Facebook. Much hilarity.Reddit quote, u/choirleader

12.

Two places make dill dip. One accused the other of stealing the recipeReddit quote, u/duckswithbanjos

13.

People here in my town of 396 still upset that the local Christmas tree was taken down and thrown away with all the lights still on it.Reddit quote, u/Onlykitten

14.

My country is the size of a small town. One problem at the moment is that we have these things called roundels they are kinda like roundabouts but no one has right of way and there are no lanes you just drive where ever you want and people are getting super angry about it even though nothing bad happened since they opened them.Reddit quote, u/RhysK2302

15.

The woman who just got elected mayor owns most of the property downtown, and all the open seats on city council went to her employees. Can’t wait to see the corruption in action.Reddit quote, u/Blanchypants

16.

Small town with 3000 inhabitants. Everyone knows each other, everyone knows where everyone works, who is related to whom, and so on. Still, my cousin doesn't know who is the father of her child.Reddit quote, u/mulberstedp

17.

The city I live in (around 10k residents or so) doesn't allow food trucks to operate outside of things like festivals. There has been a push to change that, and, coincidentally, majority of most vocal people against them are restaurant owners.Reddit quote, u/grindstone_hollow

18.

About 2 years ago the mayor of the town I live in got caught drunk driving his lawnmower down Main Street at around 2 AM about 6 weeks after being elected.Reddit quote, u/ThatDude8129

19.

Travel baseball. There is a new organization in town that is absolutely bloodsucking money out of parents of 7-12 year olds and they have no clue.Reddit quote, u/adrivebycastellanos

20.

They just built a new Verizon in town, but someone started a rumor that it was also going to be a Panera Bread. Someone went as far as to mark it on Google Maps as a Panera, even though the building is clearly a single store with Verizon signage.Reddit quote, u/KelsieK09876

21.

The Mayor has a personal feud with this one guy that has an emotional support pig while living in the village. Housing farm animals are illegal within the village.Reddit quote, u/Far-Resource-819

22.

They’re still trying to figure out who is Black. The village has 249 people. On the census, everyone reported white except one person who reported biracial or something and now the demographics show that the town is .7% Black.Reddit quote, u/Technical-Bet-2023

23.

Two years ago there were horrible fires in the valley I live in. Three people burned to death, tons of houses, and businesses lost. We are still recovering. The city decided this statue would be the best way to honor the victims. The back lights up to look like fire. Yup a statue showing three people on fire is how they wanted to honor the victims.Reddit quote, u/Chaela

24.

A woman on the city council constantly spouts about cleaning up the admittedly horrible drug problem in town and goes on sanctimonious rants on social media about it.Her son is the main dealer in town. He lives in her house. It's not a secret at all and he gets arrested for shit all the time and she gets him off the hook every time.Reddit quote, u/SailoLee92

25.

My parents live in a tiny Greek village that has a grand total of three families (including my parents) and currently they're trying to rectify the fact that our dog killed our neighbor's chicken.Reddit quote, u/SwingGirlAtHeart

26.

The town I grew up in had a Beefalo (cow Buffalo cross breed) escape from a slaughterhouse. It spent months running wild in the wooded areas around town living off whatever it could find to eat. I had friends who were out for drives sending me pictures of their beefalo encounters like it was Sasquatch. This went on for months.The story got picked up by a big YouTube channel and went viral. Reddit quote, u/SectorZed