Counties and towns pick up slack on picking up roadkill 10/15/06
Viewing deer grazing together or bounding into the
woods is a Pinelands beauty that city folks relish when they drive down for a
visit.
But to see those beautiful deer bloodied and bug-infested, dead alongside the
road, makes your travels — or bite of a hamburger on your lunch break — less
than appetizing. You cringe as you drive by. Someone, you think, will be by to
clean it up, and then you take a swig of soda to wash down your lunch.
When the state Department of Transportation told county and municipal
officials that effective Oct. 1, they no longer would contract out to pick up
the 120-pound or bigger carcasses, that it was up to local officials to hire
someone, officials were angry.
“The state has been assuming the responsibility for years, and to pass this
on to the already strapped municipalities and counties because of the
irresponsible spending habits of the state Legislature is unfair,” Atlantic
County Executive Dennis Levinson said Friday.
DOT spokeswoman Erin Phalon said the state estimates a savings of at least
$734,000 per year.
The state already began picking up deer using their
existing workforce.
“These are the same people who fill potholes and do snow removal. DOT crews
have been removing the deer carcasses for about a month, and so far we found the
removal process was very efficient and has not been at the expense of other DOT
work,” Phalon said. “This shows that additional taxpayers' money doesn't have to
be used.”
As for counties and municipalities using their own road crews to do the
cleanup, Phalon said, “Certainly we wouldn't tell the counties how to maintain
their roadways.”
DOT statistics show more dead deer are found on local and county roads than
on state highways.
Atlantic County has 375 miles of county roads. “If you took the AC
Expressway, the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike and stretched
them end to end, we would still have more roads — and now the state is leaving
it to us to search rural areas for the dead deer,” Levinson commented.
When it comes to roadkill, time is of the essence, especially when vultures
make meals out the carcasses.
The state-contracted service ended Oct. 1. That left Levinson and county
officials from other parts of the region to find a plan, and quick.
On Monday, Atlantic County's contracted-deer removal service will begin its
work.
In the meantime, his public works crews have picked up seven dead deer and
hauled them to a landfill for burial.
The county decided to contract out because Levinson did not want the crew to
do the job without proper equipment — a worker certainly could not hoist a the
carcass into a dump truck. “We would have had to use front-end loaders. It is
intensive work and we would have had to pay overtime to keep up,” Levinson said.
About $25,000 is set aside in the new county budget for a one-year,
renewable, dead-deer removal service.
At $59.95 per deer instead of the state-contracted $32, it costs more for
taxpayers in the end.
Levinson sent a letter to all the mayors in Atlantic County and asked if they
would be interested in using the same firm, Deer Carcass Removal Service LLC out
of Creamridge.
Buena Vista Township Mayor Chuck Chiarello, who represents a 44-square-mile
township surrounded by Pinelands forest, said he did not hesitate to call the
company.
He said he hopes to get the same price the county did and the same six-day
service. Instead of $25,000, however, the township will incur a $2,400 expense.
U.S. Route 40 and state Route 54 cut through the community. But the deer
carcasses are found more along the 125 miles of local roads, Chiarello said.
“We are talking about more than 50 deer picked up a year. Our public works
department could certainly do the removal, but that would depend on when the
deer gets hit. If it happens on the weekend and it is a public works employee
who has to pick it up, by the time we get him out there, it will be a weekday.”
Both Atlantic County and Buena Vista Township are looking at six-day pickups.
“It is not like we will leave any deer sitting on the highway, that is for
sure,” Chiarello said. “We will take care of the problem.”
To e-mail Madelaine Vitale at The Press:
MVitale@pressofac.com
LOCAL TOWNS TO HANDLE DEER REMOVAL
The state has decided to stop removing deer carcasses from local roads. The
chart shows the number of deer removed from state and local roads in 2005:
County State roads County, municipal roads
Atlantic 411 1,028
Cape May 60 140
Cumberland 107 249
Ocean 286 666
New Jersey 4,597 10,726
Source: State Department of Transportation
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Prep's Father LaRosa dies at
73 - 10/14/06
Longtime headmaster Rev. Stephen J. LaRosa of St. Augustine Preparatory School
in Richland, died on Thursday.
For complete details go to:
www.thedailyjournal.com
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Crackdown on litterbugs
announced 9/27/06
On Tuesday afternoon elected officials and environmental groups kicked off
the "Litterbugs--CAN IT" month for October. Officials unveiled initiatives
to clean up litter, educate adults and children. Buena Vista Township is
participating in this effort.
For complete details go to:
www.thedailyjournal.com
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Join us in
effort to clean up our communities 9/27/06
This campaign is about individuals and communities working together to
educate people and change behavior through education and enforcement.
For complete details go to:
www.thedailyjournal.com
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Spinach crisis
sends top farming official here 9/20/06
New Jersey Agriculture Secretary is to meet today with farmers facing the
loss of fall spinach crop. This is due to the outbreak of E. coli
infections in 21 states.
For complete details go to:
www.thedailyjournal.com
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Thanking the
municipalities for the music 9/16/06
Thanks to all three communities and to the individuals who were in charge of
the concerts.
For complete details go to:
www.thedailyjournal.com
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Buena Vista turns
doubters into believers 9/13/06
Since the Pinelands Commission okayed the Richland Village redevelopment zone
the vision of Richland Village got a step closed to becoming a reality.
For complete details go to:
www.thedailyjournal.com
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Commission OKs zoning for
Village 9/13/06
The Pinelands Commission has approved the proposal to convert a section of
Richland Village into a redevelopment zone.
For complete details go to:
www.thedailyjournal.com
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Deer removal
contracts under consideration 9/13/06
The Township Committee decided to push the issue of awarding a contract to
pick up of deer carcasses to the September 25 meeting.
For complete details go to:
www.thedailyjournal.com
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State must cut costs,
not shift burden 9/12/06
Opinion: The state is trying cut down on costs by not removing dead animals
leaving it to the municipalities.
For complete details go to:
www.thedailyjournal.com
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Deer removers may soon
need pick-me-up 9/11/06
BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP — It's nearly mating season
for deer, and it's probably safe to say there's a large population of buck in
southern New Jersey who are rather excited about this.
Until they die.
Call it nature's own form of poetic justice. During a deer's rut season,
bucks have the tendency to become a bit bolder when hunting down the ladies.
For them, that means sometimes foolishly running out into the middle of a
road while in hot pursuit of an elusive doe. That also means sometimes running
out into the middle of the road in front of a car to get to that elusive doe.
The result is usually an insurance claim and a dead deer.
The driver is on his or her own for the insurance. But
there was a time when that dead buck would be picked up off the road by a state
contracted deer-removal company.
Come Oct. 1, one of New Jersey's cost-cutting moves will be eliminating that
service for all non-state roads. State workers will remove deer carcasses from
state roads, while municipalities have to find their own means remove the deer.
While residents of municipalities will pick up the small tab, it also has an
effect on deer-removal business owners.
“I'd say that falls into the unfunded mandate department,” said Buena Vista
Mayor Chuck Chiarello, whose 44-square-mile township is mostly surrounded by
deer-heavy Pinelands forest.
It's a cost that will go into the budget and will be paid for by taxpayers,
Chiarello said.
“Unfortunately, our state aid has been flat-funded for the past five years,”
he said. “If we were getting more funds, we could say that could absorb the cost
without affecting the taxpayer.”
In almost any area in the state, rut season is when the most calls for
deer-carcass removal come in, said Kelly Winthrop, whose self-named service
currently cleans up deer in Buena Vista under a state contract.
“In a wooded area like that, we can average about one call per week,” she
said.
In her current state contract, Winthrop would pick up dead deer from both
state and township roads in the seven southern counties for about $32 per
carcass.
Under the new rules, Winthrop and her counterparts will only pick up deer on
township roads — and only in townships that accept her bid for the service.
That's raised the removal rate to $72 per deer, she said.
“And that's if I get the bids for a good amount of townships,” she said. “If
not, I'm out of business on Oct. 1.”
Deer removal specialists are now competing with other services statewide for
individual contracts. Buena Vista, for example, is considering three separate
bids and may possibly approve one at tonight's township committee meeting,
according to township business administrator Ron Trebing.
“I know there's anther service in the northern part of the state who is
offering the same service for $65 a deer,” Winthrop said. “And we're both doing
the same thing.”
Usually after a deer carcass is spotted, a township or police can fax
Winthrop's business and give them the location. After that, the cleanup is quick
but sometimes gruesome.
The deer is usually picked up with a cable and a metal sheet under the
carcass. From there it's hauled into the back of a truck and taken to a
landfill.
“It's a regular burial,” Winthrop said. “The deer is usually buried in
several feet of dirt.”
Winthrop's business deals strictly with deer on roads. She has rejected calls
in the past about a dead buck on the Atlantic City beach and a doe that washed
up on the Delaware River.
“We're strictly roadside,” she said.
But with the new state rules, would she consider the extra business?
“There's usually plenty of business during the rut,” she said. “But you'll
never know.”
To e-mail Tom Namako at The Press:
TNamako@pressofac.com
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Roadkill rule leaves
towns scrambling 9/11/06
As of October 1 the state will stop picking up deer carcasses. Local
municipalities will have to pick them up.
For complete details go to:
www.thedailyjournal.com
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Richland Village project on
track 9/5/06
Pinelands Commission should make final determination on
Friday on the proposal designed to transform Route 40 into a tourist
destination.
For complete details go to:
www.thedailyjournal.com
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Car show roars into Buena Vista
9/4/06
On Sunday about 600 classic autos and muscle cars held
their Rollin' Rods Classic Car Show at the Buena Vista Camping World.
For complete details go to:
www.thedailyjournal.com
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District making room for
students 9/2/06
Benchmark Academy Charter High School's plan to open
this fall in Corbin City was denied to open by the state Education Department.
For complete details go to:
www.thedailyjournal.com
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South Jersey Gas balked at new fees the city charges utilities that open freshly
paved streets 9/2/06
