Havre City Council approves deer management plan

After hearing some argument over the subject from some members of the public, the Havre City Council approved a final draft of an Urban Deer Management Plan aimed at reducing the population of the animals within the city and reducing human-deer conflict.

City officials have been discussing ways to deal with the increasingly large and problematic deer population in the city for the past few months, and local frustration over the issue has been brewing for the past few years.

The plan includes allowing certain wide-open areas of the city to open to bow hunting of the deer, and to use trapping with euthanasia throughout the rest of the city to cull the population, as well as providing more education about why feeding deer is not only illegal, but bad for both the deer and humans.

In May, the city held a town hall on the subject, which was attended by more than 40 residents, substantially more than any other recent town hall, and one that did not attract a single opponent of the city implementing a plan to address the issue.

However, a few people came voicing concerns about the plan at Tuesday's meeting, including how effective it would be, whether it was humane and why some people hadn't heard about it until recently.

Havre Mayor Doug Kaercher said the matter had been discussed throughout a number of meetings in the past few months on top of the town hall in May, and information has been available on the city's website for some time now.

Local media has on several occasions reported on the meetings and provisions of the proposed plan.

The primary concern of Tracey Warburton was safety regarding bow hunting.

Kaercher, and some council members, said bow hunting will not be permitted in residential areas, and potential hunters will need to receive permits from Fish, Wildlife and Parks, as well as get permission from the land owners in question.

"You're not going to be able to stand on your porch and shoot arrows at your neighbor's house," Kaercher said.

Concerns were also raised regarding whether dead animals would attract predators, but Kaercher said people who hunt the deer are required to process and use the meat, and meat from animals that the city removes will be donated to the Havre Food Bank, after it is inspected it for any disease.

Warburton read from an article she found online - apparently from the Humane Society of the United States - which said plans like these do not necessarily reduce human-deer conflict.

During the May Town Hall, representatives from Fish, Wildlife and Parks said plans like the one being discussed do not work across the board and some communities using them didn't see a huge difference, but some communities have since seen a reduction in conflict and damage.

Opponents of the plan at Tuesday's meeting said people should use repellent and low fencing to repel dear.

Other people at the meeting said they've tried that very thing, along with everything else they could think of, but it just doesn't work.

Kaercher said that, on top of the expanding population of deer, the fact that more and more are born and grow up in the city means they are more and more comfortable around humans and become less easy to repel or scare off.

Local law enforcement and Fish, Wildlife and Parks representatives have said repeatedly that deer eating food made for humans is killing many of them, since their digestive systems aren't made for it, leading to more problems.

After some discussion, including other members of the audience speaking in support of the plan, including former Havre Mayor Bob Rice who said people are getting so frustrated they're taking matters into their own hands and killing the animals anyway, council member Andrew Brekke spoke in favor of the plan.

Brekke said he went to the May Town Hall and it is very rare for so many people to be in agreement about an issue. It's clear from the interactions he's had that the community collectively wants something done about it, he said.

"We've all been contacted by people. They're tired of it, and they want something to be done about it," he said, " ... We gotta start somewhere."

After this discussion, the board voted unanimously to adopt the plan, which will now be sent to the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission for review and potential approval.

The council also passed a number of ordinances on second reading at Tuesday's meeting, including one to prohibit trailer parking on public streets, avenues, boulevards, alleys or other public rights of way.

This ordinance was discussed at a previous council meeting and would require that trailers and recreational vehicles parked on someone's property to either be stored in a backyard area, or in a side yard on a space that is prepared with gravel or concrete or some similar material, and that it be stored a certain distance away from houses, doors and windows to prevent possible fire hazards.

The ordinance would also prohibit people from living in said vehicles for more than five consecutive days, which proponents of the ordinance said can be dangerous.

This ordinance saw some disagreement among council members last month, with Councilperson Josh Miller calling it an overreach.

He reiterated those concerns Tuesday, and said he received six calls from constituents, many from outside of his ward, all of whom were against the ordinance.

Fellow Councilperson Ed Matter said everyone he talked to that understood the ordinance supported it, and Brekke said he heard two in favor and one with significant concerns.

One member of the audience, Havre real estate agent Kim Cripps, said if the city is worried about fire hazards then they should be focusing on addressing blighted properties which she said is a much bigger issue.

Later in the meeting, Brekke said they did pass an ordinance at the end of last year to address blighted properties, an ordinance that requires property owners to address the state of said houses within one year of being notified.

He said he understands the frustration, but they do need to give people time to address these things on their own and there were many people who came to them while the ordinance was being drafted with good-faith concerns about the original six-month time frame, which was eventually doubled to a year.

He said it is a slow process, but notices have been sent and the clock is ticking on many of the properties that concerns have been expressed about.

The ordinance about trailer and recreational vehicle parking passed 5-2 on second reading, with Miller and Derek Eldridge voting against and Brekke, Matter, Denise Brewer, Heather Parker and Lindsey Ratliff voting for it. Councilperson Sarah McKinney was absent from the meeting.

The council also voted unanimously on another ordinance on second reading that prohibits trailers from being parked on city streets for more than 72 hours in any seven-day period.

Brekke said at last month's meeting that the previous ordinance only specified that trailers can't be parked on the street in the same spot for longer than 48 hours without being moved.

He said this led to people just moving their trailers slightly forward to get around the requirement and ended up doing nothing to reduce the number of trailers on the street, which he said has become a potential safety issue.

Under the new ordinance people would have to move their trailers to a new location after 72 hours and not bring them back for a week.

The council also approved the appointment of former Havre Fire Department Assistant Fire Chief Nathan Courtnage to be Havre's new fire chief, as well as the appointment of Joy Bridwell to the Havre-Hill County Library Board.

The council also approved the appointment of two probationary police officers, Buck Easley and Sean O'Connell, whom Havre Police Chief Gabe Matosich said have both fulfilled the requirements to become officers and will be an asset to the department.

Easley attended the meeting, although O'Connell was not able to attend.

The City Council Water and Sewer Committee will meet this afternoon at 4:30 in the back meeting room at City Hall to discuss Havre water.

A town hall will be held Monday, July 18, at 7 p.m., with a presentation by Great Falls City Manager Greg Doyon about the potential benefits of the city moving to a city manager form of government.

The next Havre City Council meeting will be Monday, Aug. 1, at 7 p.m.