Town council hears turkey concerns

During their Tuesday, Nov. 20 meeting the Thermopolis Town Council, with Mayor Mike Mortimore absent, heard from Kevin Simpson about his concerns of the mess turkeys are making on a property he is caring for on Cedar Ridge.

Game warden Benge Brown provided some history of turkeys in the area. In the winter of 2007 or early 2008 the Game and Fish Department put turkeys in the lower part of Owl Creek but those animals later moved into town.

Regarding the property for which Simpson is caring for, Brown said about three years ago he received a call about turkeys roosting in the trees and defecating on the property. There is no responsibility of the department to respond to a personal property issue like that, Brown said, but staff do if they feel they can help someone out.

A trap was set up, Brown said, and they caught three turkeys. There was a lot of ruckus under the roosting trees when this was going on, which seemed to frighten the birds away until recently, when Simpson called him about turkeys damaging the roof. Brown noted people were upset, thinking they had trapped all the turkeys, but they only took three of 18 at the time.

The Game and Fish Department has a regulation regarding the legal take of wildlife, Brown said, but turkeys don’t fall under it. A permit could be issued to take turkeys if there is property damage, though such instances are primarily for crop damage.

Brown suggested ideas such as getting on the roof and throwing tennis balls at the turkeys, or using bottle rockets or other loud explosive devices to bust the turkeys out of their roost a few days in a row. The department, Brown said, allows for people to take measures to mitigate wildlife on their property, but he was unaware whether mitigation has been done in this case.

Overall, Brown noted, the department receives more complaints about deer than they do about turkeys.

Police Chief Steve Shay noted when there were problems with turkey buzzards and crows in the past people were allowed to shoot off bottle rockets and cracker shells to scare the birds away.

Simpson said the issue with the turkeys at the property has been going on for some time, and he maintains the property two to three times per week. Among the measures he’s taken include banging a metal bat on concrete and throwing rocks at the birds, though they still come back. He feels he’s exhausted his resources as to what he can legally do, and was asking for help from council. He estimated there to be 40-50 on the property, and expressed concern that the birds would become another person’s problem if he succeeded in scaring them away.

Brown said he suggested ideas to Simpson a few days prior to the meeting, and didn’t think there had been enough time to try them.

Though it was suggested a temporary ordinance be issued to allow for the use of fireworks to scare off the turkeys, Chief Shay said Simpson could be granted permission to use them for a targeted purpose.

Also during the meeting, the board approved Resolution 546 to make some adjustments in accounts. Clerk/Treasurer Tracy Van Heule was a $25,000 revision due to expenses incurred with the water line break underneath Canyon Hills Road. $160,000 was also added to the insurance trust fund to handle expenditures.

Van Heule said it was a really bad year in terms of insurance. Mayor’s Assistant Fred Crosby noted there was a 26 percent increase and they went through different scenarios such as extreme deductibles or tripling the employees’ portions, but that didn’t seem to help much. It was decided to up the employees’ deductibles by $500, to $1,500 per person. The deductible per family was also increased, to $3,000, and the new rates will take effect in January.

Council approved the audit for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2018, presented by Michael Wright of Koerwitz, Michel, Wright and Associates. During his report, Wright presented his “annual lecture” indicating the business office doesn’t have at all times the textbook segregation of duties, though he further pointed out the council works to mitigate the risk that comes with that segregation.

Town Engineer Anthony Barnett reported on a settlement survey on the landfill, noting the life of the current cell being used is holding and at this pace the cell life will outlast the permit life for the landfill.

Barnett also reported Wilson Bros. has requested substantial completion on the water line project, and to his knowledge everything was complete except for some tuning on an altitude valve in the state park and an electronic hot water meter that was shorted out.

Concerns were also presented about snow removal frequency and effectiveness. Director of Public Works Ernie Slagle explained when four or more inches of snow is on the ground the plows go out. He noted there are several people in town with plow blades attached to four-wheelers and trucks, which complicates things for town crews as any snow pushed off sidewalks and driveways into the street becomes the town’s problem.