Pressured by a dozen residents lobbying for installation of 4-poster tick control systems by next spring, North Haven Mayor Laura Nolan agreed Thursday night to provide an update about the Village Board’s thinking by its Oct. 2 meeting.

The residents have been turning out at Village Board meetings, appealing for installation of 4-posters by the early spring of 2013, but the mayor and trustees have resisted setting a decision date. Only with added pressure from the residents Thursday night did the mayor finally agree to provide an update in October about where the board stands in its decision-making process.

North Haven was the control site when Shelter Island participated in a three-year experimental study of the 4-posters conducted by Cornell University and the Cornell Cooperative Extension and funded by the state, county, town and private citizens. If North Haven elects to implement the system, it’s possible that it would lease 4-posters from Shelter Island since 60 units were deployed during the test program and only 25 are expected to be deployed by the town next spring.

“We move in a very measured way,” Ms. Nolan told North Haven residents at Thursday’s meeting.

She and village trustees are still trying to gather information about costs of the program while they’re digesting reams of information supplied by advocates and opponents of the 4-posters.

“The board is not going to be dragging our feet on this,” Ms. Nolan promised.

Trustee R.J. Smyth said he still has a lot of research to do “before becoming convinced this is a solution” and even if it is, there’s still the issue of how to finance the program, he said.

For a full story, see the Sept. 13 Reporter.

jlane@timesreview.com