By Jacob Moon

WELLSVILLE -- If all goes as planned, mosquitoes in the valley won't be bugging residents as badly next year.

The City Council made a recommendation Wednesday to pass a resolution in an upcoming council meeting to participate in a new mosquito abatement district in Cache County. Elmer Kingsford, a county resident and retiree of the Logan City mosquito abatement program, presented the plan to the council in hopes of getting them to approve of an additional tax it will place on the residents. Although the program is only in the planning stages at the moment, Kingsford is pushing to have it approved by a majority of the cities in the county soon.

"I want to see it happen because I think that if all of the communities participate, there is a fairly decent chance we can get the mosquito population down in the area," Kingsford said.

After doing a lot of organizing and research, Kingsford said he thinks there will not need to be more than a .0002 percent increase in property taxes. This would equal $20 on a $100,000 dollar home. None of the council members seemed to be opposed to such an increase.

Councilman Kent Brenchley brought up the issue of West Nile Virus and asked how this program would deal with that epidemic.

"We are going to have it this year," Kingsford said. "I have no question in my mind we will have it. As of November of last year, there were only four states that didn't have it, Oregon, Utah, Nevada and Arizona."

The new district would be the first precaution against the virus affecting Utah.

During the council meeting, council members presented Kingsford with a variety of questions to make sure the issue was being presented clearly. Most of the questions had to do with how chemicals to kill the mosquitoes will be administered to the land.

Kingsford said money from the initial .0002 percent tax will be used to by equipment such as vehicles and sprayers so they can effectively administer a chemical called BTI within the next year.

"The neatest thing about BTI is that it's very specific to mosquitoes and black flies," he said. This means productive insects, like honeybees, and other animals will not be affected by the new chemicals.

The Bear River Health Department has already approved of the idea of a mosquito abatement program and Kingsford presented the program to many of the other mayors in the county at a recent meeting of the Mayors Association. If each of the other communities accepts the proposal, it will be presenting in a public forum and then potentially be placed on the ballot in November.

Logan City already has a similar program that is run out of the city's general fund, but it has shown a desire to be a part of a larger, county-wide district.

NW
TJ

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