Tick talk at Town Hall, questions about 4-posters

To make a partial effort is the same as not making any effort.

So said Police Chief Jim Read before a Town Board budget meeting Wednesday, asking for a significant spending increase to deploy and maintain 4-poster units to tackle what many are calling a public health crisis.

The town’s Deer and Tick Committee is calling on the town to deploy 40 units, two-thirds of those it says are needed throughout the town to stop the spread of tick-borne illnesses. The preliminary 2014 budget along with some contributions would cover only 32 units.

Throw into the mix 20 units the town hopes Mashomack Preserve would deploy, three individual taxpayers who have pledged $5,000 each to support three units, plus possible money that could be coming from New York State, and Shelter Island could be closer to meeting its goal of 60 units. But Supervisor Jim Dougherty acknowledged he has found few residents willing to contribute to support the 4-poster program.

When people hear about a “major public health menace,” they see it as the government’s responsibility, Chief Read said. Ultimately, it must fall to the town to bear the brunt of funding for 60 units over several years if the health crisis from tick-borne diseases is to be effectively battled, he added. Even if Senator Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) wins $100,000 for Shelter Island this year, Chief Read said, the town can’t count on that being repeated in the future. Nor can the town count on individual donors who might step forward with $5,000 this year — the approximate total cost of a 4-poster unit — but not necessarily commit to $5,000 year after year, he said.

The preliminary 2014 budget calls for committing $98,500, while Chief Read said ideally the town would allot $150,000 — twice what is currently allotted — and plan to deploy five additional units each year until it is funding all 60 units.

That raised a question from Mike Scheibel, Mashomack Preserve’s natural resources manager and a member of the town’s Deer and Tick Committee, about just how much it costs to deploy and maintain each unit. Mashomack has been looking at an $1,800 figure, he said, but Chief Read said the actual cost is $5,000 per unit. That’s because the cost pays not just for deployment, but ongoing maintenance, corn to bait the units and expenses to cover the work of Highway Department employee Nick Ryan, who is certified to apply permethrin to the unit rollers so that it coats the necks of the deer as they eat the corn.

What’s more, an estimate of the cost if the town taxpayers foot the bill for all units would amount to $100 for every $1 million that property is assessed, Councilman Paul Shepherd said, basing that figure on a conversation he had with town tax assessors.

“We’re talking about real dollars here,” Mr. Dougherty said, eschewing a column in the Reporter written by Dr. William Zitek, a retired veterinarian here, that estimated the cost at $10 per taxpayer.

Councilman Ed Brown called for a continued two-prong approach to the problem that would step up recreational hunting to cull the herd. Chief Read said he favored increasing that effort too, but the town would have to begin to allot some money to offset the costs hunters bear, including disposing of deer carcasses. While most of the recreational hunters who cull the herd at Mashomack Preserve are not Islanders, there was talk of inviting other recreational hunters here rather than hiring federal sharpshooters as Southold has done.

Still, Chief Read said he doubted the herd would ever be reduced to eight per square mile — a manageable number according to wildlife biologists — from what Mr. Brown said he believes is 40 to 50 deer per square mile on the Island.