Tuesday Common Council Agenda

The Oshkosh Common Council will have its final meeting of 2008 on Tuesday, December 23rd at noon. The agenda can be found here. A couple of items of note:

*Under "Council Member Announcements, Statements, and Discussion" I asked that a discussion item be listed:

"Single-Stream Recycling and Automated Pick-Up: What Decisions Have Been Made and What Decisions Still Need to be Made?"

I asked for this item to be placed on the agenda because we are getting many phones calls and other communications against single-stream recycling, with people asking if this is a "done deal." I'm hoping that staff can simply provide some focus to this discussion so that we can at least head into 2009 with clarity about where the issue(s) are headed. If you have questions about this matter that you think need to be answered, please let me know those questions before Tuesday's meeting.

*At the last meeting we laid over approval of the 2009 Summer Farmer's Market so that alternatives to the City Hall parking lot location could first be discussed. If you believe the Farmer's Market should be at the Leach amphitheater or some other place, please let the Council know that before Tuesday's meeting. Go here to email all members of the Council.

*Ordinance 08-503 will have its first reading on Tuesday. This ordinance is the "Approval of Variance to Deer Feeding Ban & Firearm Discharge Ordinances/Culling of Urban Deer/Osborn Ave. Area." I'm sure most of you saw Ms. Amy Haberkorn's letter to the Northwestern, in which she says that an email to the Council ended up getting her a phone call from police chief Scott Greuel. She says that she will show the email to anyone who wants to see it, so I will just reproduce it here:

Dear Council Members,

Two days before leaving on an extended vacation, I sat and watched the city council meeting with great sadness. I was so surprised to see you, the council who is put in place to do what's best for our city, make such an ignorant decision regarding the killing of the deer in the quarry area. Only one of you, Tony Palmeri, brought up any valid questions. Why would we make a decision like this based on the complaints of 25% of the people polled? More importantly, why wasn't this question posed to the rest of the city?? Since when does 25% rule? Regardless, I vowed that when I returned from vacation I would try to do something to change your minds.

You see, I live on nearly four heavily wooded acres. My neighbors each have between three and four heavily wooded acres and we're surrounded by hundreds of acres of woods and fields. It is no exaggeration to say that every single day I see no less than 12 deer in my yard. One morning we awoke to find 32 deer laying on our mound system. The fact that we live in a heavily wooded area would go to reason that we would have a large deer population. But, what's remarkable is that my yard is surrounded by approximately 12,000 square feet of gardens. I have hosta and cone flowers of every variety (a deer favorite), impatiens by the basketful and planted in mounds on the ground. Impatiens are like dessert to deer. Along with these I have hundreds of varieties of flowering plants and shrubs and yet, the deer and rabbits cause my beds no harm. That mound system that the deer sleep on is less than 10 feet behind the largest flower bed I have. I have a bird bath in that flower bed that the deer often use for water and yet, they don't try to eat any of my flowers. You see, I've concocted a spray that was derived from a recipe that's been out there for years. I just tweaked it a bit. It is made in my kitchen in less than 5 minutes, costs pennies, is so safe you can drink it (although I wouldn't advise that) and I can spray my entire garden area in less than 15 minutes. I believe that the people who have complaints about damage haven't tryed hard enough to live with the deer. What about the rabbits? When the deer are gone are you going to hire sharp shooters to kill the bunnies? Rabbits can and will do as much damage as deer. It is such a beautiful thing to have both your yard and the wild life that lives within it. I've attached two photos. One is from July and the other is from August 14th as we were setting up a garden brunch the day after my daughters wedding. Not one minute did I worry that the deer would damage those beds before the brunch.

So, there I was, trying to enjoy my vacation but this was weighing so heavily on my mind that I decided to get to work right from Florida. I've contacted several animal rights organizations and it's our intention, along with many citizens of this county, to have a huge, very public presence the day of the killings. I have at least 100 people that I know will be there and that's before I put out a public invitation to join us. I believe that will number in the thousands. Please keep in mind that I am not a anti-hunter. Personally, I could never shoot a deer but I was raised in a deer hunting family and venison was a staple at the dinner table. I can understand the need to thin a herd for the well-being of the deer. I can see why, during the harsh winter months when food is scarce, it would be necessary to hunt rather than have the deer starve to death. This kill, however, has nothing to do with the well-being of the deer. It has to do with protecting Mr. and Mrs. Jones' tulips. That is no reason to kill an animal.

The argument made about the deer-car accidents may be a valid one but, if that is a main point, we'd need to kill deer along all major roads. What about the dump? You see deer there by the dozens and there is always dead deer along hwy 41. I live by Hwy 45 & cty S...accidents all the time. Hwy's 91, 44, 21....you see where this is going, don't you? The fact is that we live in an area surrounded by deer and we choose that as a life style rather than a concrete jungle. The majority of us would never trade beautiful Winnebago County for New York City. But along with that comes the deer population.

I believe that this deer kill will be an embarrassment on the city and we certainly don't need any more of those. When I write my Letter to the Editor with an invitation to our citizens to join ranks in the prevention of this unnecessary kill, it'll be important to let them know that Mark Schultz of Glacier Ridge and who is contacted by the police department weekly to assist with injured, sick or dead animals, has offered to come tranquilize the deer and transport them to an area in Pickett. Neither the DNR or you, our city council, bothered to mention that at the council meeting. I'm sure the public will wonder why this much more humane alternative wasn't considered. Also, the cost of this option would be far less expensive than the sharp shooters.

I would welcome a call from any one of you. I would love to volunteer my time to the residents affected by the deer and offer up the spray that has worked magically for me and my neighbors for twelve years. If the affected residents complaints are valid and their only problem is with the deer (and rabbits) eating their vegetation, I'd think they'd be thrilled to know that they can have the best of both worlds. They can live with the deer and still enjoy their yards.

Sincerely,

Amy Haberkorn