Deer & Tick budget hearing focuses on culling
The Town Board Thursday morning appeared amenable to a larger than requested budget for the Deer & Tick Committee, while waiting word on whether a second successive $100,000 state grant will be forthcoming to offset the cost of deploying 4-poster units.The Deer & Tick Committee had requested $142,000, with Chairman, Mike Scheibel agreeing that costs to the town of servicing four posters — feeding stands that brush deer with a tickicide — could be brought down to $30,000 from $35,000. At the same time, Supervisor Jim Dougherty agreed it makes sense to give back the $3,000 he had originally sliced from a $53,000 request for corn to bait the 4-poster units.
“I’m no prophet,” Mr. Dougherty said about the commodities market where prices of corn are determined. It has gone down, Mr. Scheibel said, but to predict that it would stay down could leave the town short of funding.
Mr. Dougherty had also originally cut $5,000 from the deer reduction program request of $25,000. But after hearing from Mr. Scheibel about enhanced efforts to decrease the deer herd, he agreed that $5,000 should be restored.
Still, there are questions about how much more the culling effort might cost. Still unresolved is a question of the time Highway Department worker Nick Ryan gives to the program — about 30 hours a week from March through November — and how that should be handled.
Highway Superintendent Jay Card Jr. told the Town Board Tuesday that he either needs the Deer & Tick Committee to hire someone else to deploy and maintain 4-posters or needs to hire someone to pick up the slack when Mr. Ryan is away from his regular Highway Department responsibilities.
There seems to be consensus that it would cost more to hire, train and license a person to handle Mr. Ryan’s work with the 4-posters than it would cost for another person to join the highway and public works crews.
The committee also wants to see increases to those who butcher the deer for the town because members believe that would be a greater incentive to the current two butchers to hunt more. It would also attract others to both hunt and butcher the deer. That money isn’t in the Deer & Tick budget, but still represents town spending.
Currently, butchers receive $45 per deer and Mr. Scheibel suggested that could be raised to $75.
Another initiative under consideration, at least as a pilot program, would be to hire White Buffalo, a leading deer management nonprofit company, to train local hunters who could then obtain nuisance licenses and deer damage permits to cull the herd between February 1 to the end of March as allowed by the State Department of Environmental Conservation.
The cost of such training would be about $6,000, at the rate of $1,500 a day for four days.
“This is what we believe would make it more palatable to the community” than bringing in federal sharpshooters, Mr. Scheibel said. Beau Payne, who has offered advice from a hunter’s perspective to the committee, told Mr. Scheibel he would like to be among those trained.
Last year, the town budgeted only $8,000 for deer reduction. The new figure of $25,000 would more than triple that expense.
Another initiative that’s having an effect is the raffle program coordinated by Police Chief Jim Read and Deer & Tick Committee secretary Jennifer Beresky, Mr. Scheibel said.
Hunters who turn in carcasses are given entry into a raffle. The more deer they take, the more entries they receive. Winners receive awards to purchase sports equipment at no cost.
“You’re really starting to get legs on that program,” Councilman Ed Brown said about the deer management effort.
The major question on residents’ minds, according to Councilwoman Chris Lewis, is when the town is going to do something about the deer. The new initiatives and funding are aimed at doing that, she said.
TAYLOR’S ISLAND
P.A.T. Hunt and Carol Galligan brought the Taylor’s Island budget to the table Thursday morning, with Ms. Hunt describing it as in line with current spending.
But there are differences between what has been requested and what Mr. Dougherty penned into his proposal.
Repairs to the Smith-Taylor cabin that were budgeted at $14,000 this year, have to date come in at slightly more than $26,000. The Taylor’s Island Committee requested $24,691 for the work in 2016 and Mr. Dougherty cut it in his budget to $15,500.
By the end of the brief session the two women had with the Town Board Thursday, it appeared their requested budget would be intact, but that remains to be determined over the next couple of weeks as budgets are solidified.
After hearing from both the Taylor’s Island and Deer & Tick Committee members, Mr. Dougherty had high praise for both groups.
They’re all volunteers who do “so much quality work,” he told his colleagues.
Budget hearings are slated to resume Friday at 1 p.m. and are open to the public.
