These minutes from the Lyme Disease Study Committee –
Town of Medfield Lyme Disease Citizen Study Committee
Meeting Minutes – Monday, Jan 13, 2014 – 7:00 pm
Attendees: Chris Kaldy (Chair), Frank Perry, Barry Mandell, Erica Reilly, Carolyn Samson, Pete Peterson
Minutes – reviewed meeting minutes from Nov 18 (no December meeting)
Controlled Hunt Fall 2013 – Season finished
Frank reported that 40 deer (to be confirmed) were culled this season from all over town. Feels the hunters who did best were those working in teams. We did not receive any negative feedback this season. Mike Francis would like to hold a cookout for Dover & Medfield hunters.
Ideas to improve next year’s hunt, address town land use and illegal hunters more clearly:
- Update Hunting Season sign to say No Hunting except by permit.
- Create a permanent sign to post on town land and add the second sign in season. Maybe Jason Spiess can produce these for us.
- Evaluate all hunters since now 3 seasons and some have not taken any deer.
- Require some community service hours of all hunters.
- Reaffirm at Selectmen’s meeting our authority to be the only group that can issue hunting permits.
- Obtain key to gate at entrance to water department land.
- Request additional budget to purchase a couple trail cameras and tree stands (for our “community”) as well as a stipend for Barry’s service.
- Encourage private owners to use our program rather than private hunters.
- Consider when to do background checks again.
Barry reported he’s collecting data from animal control officers on the number of deer collisions in Medfield and neighboring towns for the past years, including Millis, Medway, Franklin, and Bellingham. Data to date:
2009 ‘10 ‘11 ‘12 ’13 Average over 5 yrs
Medfield 41 59 43 29 18 38
Dover 41 46 38 38 41 41
Actions:
- Chris to remind hunters to remove stands by end of January.
- Frank to confirm deer taken and send list to Mike Francis.
- Frank & Barry to collect hunter logs.
- Chris to contact Mike Francis about cookout.
- Carolyn to find out our current budget balance and if we can spend it on items other than those in our original budget, i.e. trail cameras, tree stands, Barry.
- Chris to ask Evelyn to be on Feb 4 Selectmen’s meeting agenda
- Chris to find out Denise Garlick’s office hours to meet to discuss hunting rules.
- Chris to finish pamphlet.
Tick & Lyme Education / Website
1. Tick Check Posters – Carolyn received new batch
- Carolyn will take new ones to Nancy to distribute in schools.
2. Sports Coaches – Erica and Carolyn decided the best way to reach kids’ parents would be to have a tick notice added to the emails sent out by the coaches to the parents, rather than relying on the coaches or coaches’ meetings to inform parents and kids.
- Erica & Carolyn will contact spring sport coaches (baseball, soccer, lacrosse) at the appropriate time and give them blurb for emails.
3. Park & Recreation – new director coming on
- Erica will meet with new director to educate him/her on ticks and offer signs to be put up around McCarthy Park.
4. New ‘N Towne
- Carolyn will check in with President to be ask if they’re still handing out data at newcomers’ meetings and if blurb could be added to emails as well as on website.
5. Recent articles in our favor discussed –
1. Article in Time Magazine (Dec 9) reported on the need to manage various overabundant wildlife species by responsible hunting.
2. Article in Boston Globe (Dec 9) reported how 2 state Senators (Robert Hedlund, Weymouth, and Richard Ross, Wrentham) recovered from bad cases of Lyme disease.
3. Article in Boston Globe (Dec 13) reported carditis from Lyme disease caused 3 deaths, indicating that Lyme can be fatal.
Other
1. Scout Project – Chris reported that Robert hung 10 owl boxes in the water department land by Wheelock and so has completed his project for us.
Next Meeting: Monday, Feb 10, 2014 in the Warrant Meeting Room at Town Hall, 7 pm
Submitted by Chris Kaldy
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