Paonia buzzing over mosquito control
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Top level Past Issues Issue 35 News-North Fork
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Author: Kathy Browning
Publishing date: 30.08.2002 23:34
North Fork Rumors, speculation, charges and explanations buzzed around Paonia and Hotchkiss over recent actions of the Mosquito Control Board.
People quickly rallied over the alleged firing of Mosquito Control Board field manager Bill Smith, the resignation of elected board member Bob Reedy and the alleged resumption of spraying with malathion.
As the dust settled, the one thing the Mosquito Control Board and those opposed to the use of pesticides, including the Committee for Safer Mosquito Control, could agree on was that Kleen Away was the most effective way to reduce the mosquito population in the North Fork Valley.
The Mosquito Control Board plans to spray Kleen Away, a non-toxic enzyme, in Paonia and Hotchkiss and on organic gardens this week, and in September and October. Malathion will only be sprayed in outlying areas if requested by farmers.
Disagreement remains over whether Smith was fired or his contract had simply expired.
The furor began on Friday morning, Aug. 23, when according to Bill Smith, “an impromptu” meeting of the Mosquito Control Board was called at their shed on J 75 Road.
“I showed up to defend myself,” Bill Smith said. “Their opinion was they wanted to start using malathion. I had been against that all year. We had been using non-toxic stuff that worked just as well.”
According to Smith, board members who wanted to resume using malathion included chairman Ron Wist, Vic Wyers and Bill Kolb.
Smith said his verbal contract with the Mosquito Control Board ran through the end of
September. The board uses teens to do the spraying and fogging, and Smith directed their activities. With the students going back to school, Thursday, Aug. 22, was their last day to spray for the season. Smith said the board told him that they no longer needed him since the teens were finished. Smith asked if the board wanted him to continue servicing the board’s trucks, and was told that board members would take care of that and asked for his keys.
Smith said there was no argument at the meeting. “I don’t have any ill feelings with those guys. It was just a different way of looking at things. The bylaws say we are to use the safest and best way to eliminate mosquitoes.” Smith believes that the board should continue using Kleen Away.
Smith, who is retired, plans to help his brother-in-law at a local packing shed.
Smith added that after the word got out that the board would resume using malathion, they changed their minds and decided to use Kleen Away. Smith said the board has fogged with malathion all summer.
Bill Kolb speaking for the elected Mosquito Control Board on Sunday evening, Aug. 25, said Bill Smith was not fired, but simply let go since the teens which he directed were finished for the summer.
Smith, according to Kolb, brought up the subject by asking, “Should I turn in my keys?”
Kolb described Smith’s role as a non-working superintendent for the board. It was agreed that Smith would direct the spraying activities of the work force, but not actually do any physical labor.
Bill Smith’s being let go, said Kolb, had “nothing to do with Kleen Away spray.”
The board believed the agreement with Smith ended in August, not September. Smith will be paid through August. According to Kolb, the board never intended to pay Smith to “sit at home” after the student helpers quit for the summer. Kolb said board members will do the final few sprayings themselves.
“Smith was not fired. He was let go with the kids,” Kolb said. “He had another job waiting for him at a packing shed.”
Kolb said Bob Reedy did not quit in protest over Smith leaving, but quit because his schedule on the board was taking too much time away from his service station, and along with a longer school bus route beginning on Monday, Aug. 26, he could not continue to be on the board. Reedy could not be reached for a clarification.
Kolb further stated that contrary to the rumor that malathion would be sprayed in Paonia, Kleen Away would be sprayed in the towns of Paonia and Hotchkiss and on organic gardens. In outlying areas, malathion would be used if requested by a farmer.
“We are out there for the public and the public’s health. We aren’t out there to make people sick,” Kolb said.
Kolb explained that he, his wife and one other board member had completed tests on Kleen Away, malathion and Bio-mist. The tests showed that all three killed mosquitoes, but if water is treated with Kleen Away the change in the water’s surface tension causes mosquitoes and larvae to sink and drown. That factor plus it being non-toxic make it the best choice for mosquito control.
Those opposed to the actions of the Mosquito Control Board gathered at the Paonia Town Hall on Monday, Aug. 26, at noon. Trustee Zach Mann said he stopped by to make sure the demonstrators were not blocking the door, so people could enter town hall. The demonstrators carried signs expressing their concerns about malathion and their support of Bill Smith and Bob Reedy.
The demonstration was not sponsored or endorsed by the Committee for Safer Mosquito Control, according to Charles and Kathleen Ellis. While Charles and Kathleen said they were pleased to learn that the board would be spraying Kleen Away, they said this was a reversal from what board chairman Ron Wist had previously told them.
Another issue raised by the committee and the demonstrators was the meeting of the Mosquito Control Board on Friday, Aug. 23 was “an illegal secret meeting.”
Smith called it “an impromptu meeting.”
Kolb said it was “a get-together for a final touch up by board members and not a meeting.”
Actually, Colorado’s Open Meetings or Sunshine Law requires that elected boards, such as the Mosquito Control Board, are to give the public a 24-hour notice of meetings. A meeting is any time more than two board members are present and public business is discussed. Friday’s meeting should have been posted as it discussed the public business of mosquito control.
Some demonstrators also charged that it was an illegal meeting for the board to test the sprays. However, this does not show merit upon examination. The tests were conducted by two board members and one non-board member. The board had said at public meetings that testing would be completed by the end of August.
http://www.dci-press.com/article/view/106
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