Government

Town awaits permit to deploy 4-posters

 

COURTESY PHOTO | Jen Stress, a former program assistant with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, drags a flagging cloth through a field to survey tick numbers in areas were 4-posters were deployed.

Shelter Island is awaiting a permit to deploy its 4-poster units — the Island’s main weapon in countering deer ticks responsible for the spread of Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses.

The permit is issued by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and could be in hand by the beginning of the week of April 8, according to Police Chief James Read. The DEC must approve the deployment annually,  Public Works Commissioner Jay Card Jr. said. The March-April period is optimum for deploying the units, according to the DEC.

Last year was the first time the town handled the deployment of the 4-posters on its own with town worker Nick Ryan trained and licensed to use the chemical tickicide permethrin, which is placed on the units. As deer feed in the units, the pesticide solution rubs off on their heads and necks where the ticks are concentrated, killing the ticks and preventing Lyme and other illnesses such as babesiosis and Ehrlichiosis.

Prior to 2012, the town was engaged in a test of the units under a three-year Cornell study. A private company initially handled the town’s deployment and maintenance of the units after the Cornell program ended. But in 2012, the town budgeted $75,000 to tackle the program on its own, with the deployment of 20 units.

At budget time last fall, there was a move to increase the amount spent on the units to $90,000, but spending was ultimately kept at the same $75,000 level for 2013.

While the town has permission from the DEC to deploy up to 25 units this year, it would take spending by private individuals or companies to add the extra units at their own costs.

The deployment  of the 4-posters is controversial. Some people argue there is no proof the units are effective and that their use could result in polluting well water as moisture runs off the units into the ground. Those who favor the use of the units argue that testing around 4-poster sites shows fewer ticks than were detected before the deployments started. And anecdotally, they say there are few incidences of people with tick-borne diseases.

But critics such as Richard Kelly argue the Suffolk County Department of Public Health has no recent statistics to prove the incidence of tick-borne diseases has decreased. Mr. Kelly and other critics charge the money being spent on the units is a waste and argue that permethrin endangers drinking water on the Island.