City Council talks deer and dogs in Malta

Critter concerns in the City of Malta were both addressed and discussed at the latest Council meeting at City Hall last Tuesday night.

During the first Malta City Council Meeting of July two weeks ago, a Malta resident asked if anything could be done about the deer population in the City and the complainant credited the animals with nesting in her mother’s driveway and eating flowers and hedges in the yard. At that meeting, Malta Mayor John Demarais said he didn’t think there was much the City could do about deer, but said he would ask around. At last Tuesday night’s meeting, Mayor Demarais confirmed what he already knew, stating “it’s not just as simple as saying ‘can you kill a few deer'.”

“Deer are wild animals and the City has no control over them and can’t do anything about them unless (the Council) wants to do something about them and then you start walking a slippery slope,” Mayor Demarais said.

Councilman David Rummel said he talked with a wildlife biologist about the question and was told if anything was done about the deer, Montana FWP would have to set up a bow-hunt, advertise it across the state and the success rate for such an event is very low.

“He said if you wanted to kill 20 deer, you would probably need 100 hunters and the success rate is less than 10-percent,” he said. “It wouldn’t just be local (hunters) …with archery. He said, of course, that rifle would be better, but they don’t do that kind of rifle (hunt) around a town.”

The other animals discussed at the meeting were pets, namely dogs. Councilwoman Bonnie Wiederrick was approached by a citizen and asked if anything could be done about a location in the City where there are nearly 20 dogs in just four homes. The Council spent some time looking at the City ordnance on the books and clarified that people are allowed to own two dogs and two cats and a pet owner exceeding those numbers could face misdemeanor penalties. The next question of the night was how the ordinance is enforced and it was determined that all complaints must be written, signed and turned into the Malta City Clerks Office before any action could be taken.

During the Department Reports portion of the night’s meeting, Public Works Director Jim Truelove told the Council that shortly after the last Council meeting, a minor power outage across the City caused a shutdown at the booster station which caused the City’s water tank level to get very low, forcing a shutdown across the city the next day. Director Truelove said that the auto-dialer which is supposed to send out alerts didn’t work. He said that work is being done to ensure a new auto dialer works correctly to avoid such a problem again and a new booster pump is on the way. City residents were alerted of the water shutdown via the AlertSense system which is triggered by the Phillips County Sheriff’s Department automatically to all City resident’s land-line telephones. Cellphone and email alerts were also sent out and residents not yet signed up with the program, countywide, can do so at http://public.alertsense.com.

Malta Parks & Rec co-Director Natalie Judd said that the recent junior golf camps drew 60-children; dance and tumbling classes currently being held have 100 children enrolled; and both the skateboarding and tennis classes are coming to their conclusions. Co-Director Judd said that a three-team men’s softball league recently wrapped up play and the co-ed softball league, with eight teams, is currently underway with games held on Tuesday nights, though the gophers still plague the fields at Trafton Park. The next big event for Malta Parks and Rec will be youth soccer which will head into it's third season in September and has drawn well over 100 children each of the last two years. In her last bit of information of the night, co-Director Judd said that the Municipal Swimming pool will conclude its 2018 summer season when it closes on August 18th (Malta Public Schools start the 2018-19 school year on Wednesday, August 22.)

During public comment, a Malta resident who lives on a portion of the City’s Frontage Road which is only partially paved asked the Council if anything could be done about paving the rest of the road to slow the rocks and dust kicked into her yard when semi-trucks drive by. Mayor Demarais said short of the neighborhood electing to pay for the paving through SID increases (Sanitary and Improvement District), he didn’t think much could be done by the City. The Council and Mayor Demarais discussed installing a pavement apron on the road to reduce the rocks and dust and ultimately decided they would look into options to possibly rectify the problem.

In the last bits of new business, the Council Voted to table making the road behind a business on 1st South Street East one way only until all the business owners had been talked to.