City eyes gopher poisoning, water and garbage rate hikes

At last week’s Malta City Council meeting, officials talked of putting a dent into the thriving gopher population in the City parks and discussed the possibility of raising resident’s garbage rates in conjunction with the looming water rate increase.

During the communications from the mayor portion of the night’s meeting, Mayor Shyla Jones said she was recently approached by former Public Works Director John Demarais who said he would volunteer his time to rid the parks of the vermin.

“We have a bazillion gophers in River View and Tafton Parks, they are out of control,” said Mayor Jones. “Kenny (Ulrich) had proposed poisoning them for us last year and we chose not to…John Demarais came to me this weekend and he is willing to do it at no charge if the City will pay for the poison.”

Mayor Jones said that she had postponed a decision to poison the gophers until she had a chance to talk to the council as well as get the word out to the public about the plans. Councilman Jim Sintler worried that gophers which had been poisoned could then leave their homes and die and then be picked up by domestic animals and, in turn, poison pets. Mayor Jones agreed.

“That’s why we waited until we can get the word out there that we are doing this,” she said. “We need to let people know to keep their pets on a leash and not let their dogs run at-large.”

Mayor Jones added that once the poison takes effect and gophers start dying that the Public Works Crew will start picking up the carcasses on a daily basis. She said Demarais’ plan is to feed both a water hose and a tube deep into the gopher holes. The water house would flood the hole and the tube would be used to dispense the poison.

“He’s not saying that they won’t dig the holes up again, but we’ve got to do something before they start having their (babies),” Mayor Jones said. “The other thing is that last spring and summer, we started to see a lot of Bull Snakes in the parks as they are eating the gophers. You can’t get rid of them 100-percent, but we need to do something.”

With the bidding nearly completed and the start of the City’s vast water project set to begin in the coming months, Mayor Jones asked the Council what they thought about raising the garbage rates at the same time?

“As soon as those bids come in (for the water project) we need to set out water rates and start those public hearings,” she said. “We have had many, many challenges with our garbage and we don’t have enough money. We are going to have to raise that rate again.”

Mayor Jones said the rates were not raised high enough two years ago when nearly $20 per year was added to rate. The current garbage rate is $18.84 per month. Mayor Jones said that she felt as if the garbage rate would need another $25-$30 yearly increase (to make the monthly rate of a little over $20 per month.)

“The options are that you can do it later, but still have to hold all the same public hearings and all the same advertising,” she said. “Or you do them both at the same time.”

The council members all agreed that doing both increases at the same time made more sense. Malta City Clerk Lorie Bond was asked to bring the council some different pricing options at future City Council work sessions before an official increase was decided upon.

During the public comment portion of the night’s meeting, Councilman Sintler said he’d been approached by several Malta residents questioning him on when blading would begin in the City’s alleys. Public Works Director Jim Trulelove assured Sintler the blading would begin as soon as the weather allowed.