The Ad Hoc Tick Borne Disease Action Committee held a meeting on Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at the C. H. Booth Library on Main Street in Newtown, Connecticut.
Present: Michele McLeod, Mary Gaudet-Wilson, Mark Alexander, Peter Licht, David Delia, Kirk Blanchard, and Neil Chaudhary.
Not Present: Robert Grossman, Maggie Shaw, Kim Harrison, and George Miller.
Also Present: Pat Boily and one member of the public.
Call to Order: Dr. McLeod called the meeting to order at 8:00 p.m.
Approval of Minutes: The committee discussed the minutes of July 14, 2010. Several changes were made with the approval being tabled until the next scheduled meeting.
MOTOR VEHICLE DEER ACCIDENT REPORT
Mr. Chaudhary opened discussion on this report and asked if there were any questions. The committee members discussed correlation between the levels of deer-related vehicle accidents with deer rut, hunting season, the time of day and the days of the week. The recommendations were discussed at length and motions were made on the existing wording. The wording in the recommendations may be adjusted before it is combined into the final report. There were no proxy votes received at the time of this meeting although proxy votes will be received and tallied.
The committee members present voted by a show of hands on the following six recommendations:
1) The TBDAC concludes that the Town consider the use of temporary signage during rut season (mid-October through mid-January—based on crash data present in Figure3 above) to warn drivers of potential deer crashes. Sign placement should be based on high frequency crash sites.
Regarding Recommendation #1: All voted unanimously in favor.
2) The TBDAC concludes that the Town consider engaging in some highly visible public information and education program to educate the public on the risk of deer vehicle crashes during rut. This effort should be “rolled out” annually starting in October.
Regarding Recommendation #2: All voted unanimously in favor.
- As part of this conclusion, we ask the Town to consider enhancing the awareness program by supporting a school based contest to create the message to be rolled out.
Regarding Recommendation #2a: All voted unanimously in favor.
3) The TBDAC recommends that at high DVA crash locations, to the extent possible, that the Town clear foliage from roadsides in an effort to increase available reaction time for drivers to avoid deer crashes.
Regarding Recommendation #3: All voted unanimously in favor.
4) The TBDAC concludes that the Town consider engaging in some form of deer population control to reduce deer-vehicle collisions. Such control could be focused on high DVA sites.
Regarding Recommendation #4: The vote resulted with five (5) members in favor and three (3) in opposition as follows: In Favor: Mr. Delia, Mr. Chaudhary, Mr. Blanchard and Dr. Licht; and in Opposition: Dr. McLeod, Ms. Gaudet-Wilson and Mr. Alexander.
5) The TBDAC recommends that the Town considers the use of reflective lights (e.g. those produced by the Strieter Company) to deter deer from roadways.
Regarding Recommendation #5: All voted unanimously in favor.
6) The TBDAC recommends that the Town considers installing fencing along some roadways with particularly high rate of DVAs.
Regarding Recommendation #6: All voted unanimously opposed.
VACCINES
Dr. Licht opened discussion regarding research for a Lymes vaccine and presented proposed draft recommendations. He explained why the vaccine Lymerix was taken off the market shortly after it was commercially available and said there are variations of the vaccine several companies are working on. Dr. Licht discussed the possibility of the states affected by Lymes pooling resources and that elected officials, universities, etc. can work together. Committee members discussed the Town of Newtown taking a leadership role. Dr. Licht said that there has been legislature regarding the treatment of Lyme within the past year and felt that work towards a vaccine could be introduced into their dialog.
Next Meetings – The July 28th meeting is cancelled. The committee will reconvene on August 4th.
Public Comments – Lynn Garfinkle distributed an article called “Reproductive Dynamics Among Disjunct White-Tailed Deer Herds in Florida” and a paper entitled “References for Compensatory Rebound”. She approves of the idea of high school students creating a poster for the prevention of deer related accidents.
Final Comments – None
Executive Session – None
The committee adjourned at 9:50 pm.
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