Fentanyl and Deer Among Topics in Council Meeting

Routine pledge to the flag opened the meeting of the Oct. 24th meeting of the Malta City Council, which was followed by public comment, approval of minutes from the last meeting, the agenda for the meeting and claims. Present at the meeting were PWD Jim Truelove, Shelly Dunbar, Leila Sintler, Sheriff Jerry Lytle, Scott Thompson (FWP-Fish Wildlife & Parks), Thomas Sutton (FWP-Malta Area Wildlife Biologist) and Drew Henry (FWP–Regional Supervisor–Region 6).

PWD Jim Truelove thanked the Council for sending him to the recent Montana League of Cities and Towns Meeting; he had attended a class he felt was very beneficial. He then thanked Dave (Wilkes) for the "stellular job" he has been doing on the leaf job. Weather will determine further gatherings.

The crew had a couple of digs, a recent one on Central and one coming up on 3rd Ave. East.

The well houses in the life station and lagoon have been winterized. The restrooms at the Veteran's Park and Hillcrest have been closed; Trafton Park and the Rest Area will probably be closed in a few days. They are being held open to allow hunters access at this time.

The streets were patched up in a couple of areas, hot mix was used due to availability.

The City had a sanitary survey done recently, a plan of action will be put into place. The water check will come later.

Mayor Demarais asked the PWD to sweep by the courthouse as the leaves are pretty thick there.

City Clerk Lorie Bond also thanked the City for allowing her to attend the MLCT meeting. One meeting she attended stated a blend of three types of insurance to offer two kinds of insurance.

She reminded council members of the upcoming meeting with the St. Mary's Diversion meeting on Nov. 6th. She presented to members in their packets a list of checks that have not been cashed and she will ask for council permission to reissue them after they had the opportunity to review them. She would like to get them off the books.

The landfill will be closed for the winter on weekends starting Nov. 6th.

Sheriff Jerry Lytle gave a report; the deputies had responded to 1,185 calls from July 1 to September 30, with 52.07% being calls within the City of Malta and 47.93% being calls within the county.

The case total came to 91, with 55 being in Malta and 36 within the county. There were 32 arrests, 19 were in the City limits. The traffic stops have quadrupled to 225, of these, 111 were within the City limits.

In the last quarter the law enforcement staff participated in 104 hours of training.

He was pleased to announce the hiring of a deputy, Jed Crittenden. Moving here from St. George, Utah, Jed's wife, Aubrey, is the new FNP on staff at the Phillips County Health Clinic. He will attend the Law Enforcement Academy at a point in time.

He said Matt Roberts has taken over the canine dog. Matt will be attending classes in Ohio next month to be trained to know what commands to use with the canine.

"We are still hacking the drugs away...we have had a couple cases that have gone federal. With federal, the wait time is literally anywhere from 48-60 months, it is four to five years...they are that back logged. I am impressed that the work we have done was good enough that the Assistant U.S. Attorney's office took a look at it and said we're going to take that case...which is good, because federal time, they don't play around. If you get jail time you do 85%; if you get 10 years, you'll do eight and a half before you are even eligible for parole. If nothing else it sends a message to someone else, that deals drugs that we're not going to mess around."

He continued, "The drugs are out there. It's like an elephant, you have to eat it one bite at a time even if it takes a little bit of time. We keep chipping away at it."

"My evidence room is starting to stink, I'm getting too many drugs in there. Some of that stuff is horrific – it smells terrible."

Mayor Demarais inquired, "Fentanyl?"

Lytle responded, "There are fentanyl pills...in fact, we helped Ft. Belknap Tribe on a situation, they had information there were two pounds of meth and several thousand fentanyl pills coming in, and the drug problem is not localized; if it's coming to the reservation it ends up on our street, too. Anything we take off the street anywhere is a huge benefit."

Mayor Demarais inquired as to if a case is busted and there is cash involved, does the Sheriff's office get a share of that? Lytle responded, "We do...we have an agreement with the federal DEA and if it originates here and transpires/transverses anywhere else in the nation, say it is a $3 million dollar house involved, we do get a portion of it if it originated in Phillips County."

"I have to bring this up, Jerry," said Mayor Demarais, "I cannot believe people call in about the stop sign on the prairie, do I have to stop here if it is red?"

Lytle said, "Yeah, people call in...I've been sitting here for five minutes, can I go through it? Yeah..if you have extra money!"

He said they did have a fist fight break out between a worker and a driver. Other than that, it's going well. He was surprised because he didn't think they were going to break pavement; it is his understanding if they take out pavement, they are required to maintain it throughout the winter. "Who knows what kind of a spring we have to have?"

Lytle said Chad and Alisha Ereaux had moved their approach and they had to let the ambulance and fire department know in case their services were needed the approach to their house is 200 feet further north.

The council then shared concerns about parking at various places around town and marking the curbs with paint to make some curbs safer.

The Specialty Fair will be at the Event Center on November 4th and a concern about no parking was shared. It was decided to put up signs directing vendors to park in the rear and save parking space for guests at the craft and creations event.

The next item on the agenda was the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks who had been invited by Mayor Demarais to share some insight on the deer population within the City limits. As the Mayor has said on numerous occasion, "...some hate them... some love 'em," in regards to the free-roaming four-legged "wildlife."

Attending from the FWP were Scott Thompson, Thomas Sutton and Drew Henry. It so happens all three of them have lived in Malta at some time.

Scott Thompson said, "Two things that make urban deer an issue. Number one, hunting is not allowed within the City limits, so that's a given, and hunting is the primary tool we implement to manage deer numbers. So that takes out that tool. The second (statute) one allows cities to develop their own deer management plan. That is kind of a corollary of the first one. That's what many towns and cities across the state have done – the largest being Helena. We're talking very robust, we're talking hundreds of deer, and paying people to remove deer. All the way down to Jordan and Circle even have a deer plan. Every one of the deer plans looks different, it is really up to the each town to develop their own plan...how aggressive they want to approach it. Some allow hunting, some do not, some use enforcement staff, local police or sheriff to dispatch deer, some trap deer. It's not FWP saying, okay, town of Malta this is how you need to address deer. It is the town of Malta saying alright this is what we think is feasible; however it looks, it is the town of Malta determining what will work."

It was discussed about how to go about things. Some towns have someone drive around at night and count the deer in the evenings.

Mayor Demarais asked, "What happens if someone gets hurt by these deer, who is liable...are they your deer?"

"Yes, the deer are owned by the people of the state of Montana," responded FWP staff. "If there is a truly aggressive deer that is a danger to people, it can be euthanized, if there is a human safety issue, there doesn't need to be a plan to euthanize."

Councilperson Jim Sintler said, "I've drove around at night, and see five or six deer, in one spot...then come back the next night and there's the same deer. Could you give them the shot, to not kill them, but just put them under, load them in a trailer and haul them south and drop them off? I mean, I don't want to kill them, I like to see a deer now and then..."

FWP replied, "I understand. That can make sense. I think one worry we're going to have is, especially in the day of deer management right now we have a pretty decent number of CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease) around and it is reason to think the ones in town have CWD; you worry about transporting disease and about injuries. And it's not just CWD, you are introducing a lot of diseases.

Sintler said, "I know there are some around town that look bad – they are scruffy looking."

Demarais added, "Last night I saw, I call him "Tumor Face," he some things hanging off his eyes, hairy face; he's not aggressive, he shows up about third-fifth day and lays in my neighbor's yard. He's a little two pointer, he's a loner. I am guessing there is 30 in town."

Councilperson Bonnie Wiederrick said, "They come to town and go to the elevator and eat and go back up."

Responding to a remark that some people are feeding them and they know that you're not supposed to do that, FWP said that is a universal component is you have to get ahead of feeding deer. People do not realize that by putting bird feeders out you are inviting deer into your yard. Some purposely feed the deer, which causes problems.

Council members agreed to read over the literature provided about plans from other towns across the state to determine a plan that would work for Malta. The city deals with "urban" (which linger in town and do not fear human contact) and "transit" (ones that come in to graze and return to the countryside. FWP does not have any funds to fence lawns or gardens in the cities; they do work with farmers on fencing haystacks.

The question is how do we deal with the periphery deer; encouraging landowners to eliminate the numbers is one option. The young does that teach the young need to be dealt with first.

Councilperson David Rummel stated, "We plant fantastic gardens, and water our lawns and keep them attractive and the deer come in...then when drought hits they come in to eat!" Right now they are eating the crab apples.

Colstrip (Montana) developed a brochure with plants, flowers and vegetation that discourage deer, which FWP will provide to the Council. Havre had a special plan to harvest the deer and were allowed to hunt 300 head; the hunt was not a real success as only 13 were eliminated.

Putting the tools together to deal with the issue will take years; it is like putting together a tool box, you keep adding to it.

Mayor Demarais said he is getting negative feedback on social media. He wants to have an idea what the City plans to do. People talk, yet not one person has attended a council meeting to voice their concerns.

FWP staff stated they "view it as sharing the burden, we need to work together."

Next under new business, the Council voted to sponsor the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum CDBG Grant application.

The Council also voted unanimously to contribute to PhillCo in the amount of $2,500.

The Application for Contract pay #9 for the Trafton Lift Station for $24,750 was unanimously approved; this was the final payment.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. The Council will meet Tuesday, Nov. 14th at 5 p.m.