Jody Jodi Joe D. Maddock will not be heading the archery program this year. It appears that Mt. Lebanon is going to get the head honcho of White Buffalo, the patent holder of corn and apples - Dr. Tony DeNicola. Tony will be charging us $9,000 to vet the volunteer archers. I'm not sure what went wrong. The purpose of having Triple J last year was to lay the ground work for future archery programs by introducing the archers to the residents who wanted deer killed on their properties.
Car/deer collisions were at an all time high this year. Here are the numbers:
From Jan. 1 - June 30, 2016 47 car/deer collisions
From Jan. 1 - June 30, 2015 18 car/deer collisions
From Jan. 1 - June 30, 2014 17 car/deer collisions
From Jan. 1 - June 30, 2013 19 car/deer collisions
It couldn't be because deer were being hunted from September through March and tend to run frantically into streets during those times, could it? No, of course not. We must kill more deer is the Mt. Lebanon Municipal mantra.
I believe the commissioners will be voting on the $9,000 archery program on August 9.
Update July 13, 2016 11:10 AM A court ordered conciliatory meeting between Scott Township and Mt. Lebanon over killing rights in Twin Hills will take place on Tuesday, July 26, 2016 at 11:00 AM in the City-County Building on Grant Street. That should be interesting. MTL is NOT backing down. They are planning to kill deer in Twin Hills this fall.
4 comments:
An anti-kill person told me yesterday that "the Commissioners are only hearing from pro-kill people because they are the only people who get their attention. The anti-kill people have no voice with the Mt. Lebanon government." So sad and so true. We had a very successful Not In My Yard sign campaign, yet the pro-kill folks would say that there are only twelve of us against killing in Mt. Lebanon. The residents in Scott Township have no voice with the Mt. Lebanon government, for sure. They would not be permitted to speak at commission meetings about killing deer in Twin Hills because they are not Mt. Lebanon residents. Mt. Lebanon police would dismiss calls about gunshots because "the sharpshooters" were not in the area. WTF? Shouldn't that cause them to investigate further? How comforting is it to residents who are told that the gunshots heard have nothing to do with sharpshooting?
Anti-kill commissioner Kelly Fraasch will not be attending the voting meeting on August 9. What's the point of writing to the commissioners? They ignore emails. Their minds are made up. McLean has already committed to more deer killing. So has Silverman. Bendel certainly will because of his position on Twin Hills. Why do people even bother with commission meetings?
Elaine
There is absolutely no point in engaging any of our current commissioners in anti-kill conversations--either in person or in writing.
The ONLY chance that anti-kill residents have to change the system is by changing the identities of those elected to sit on the commission. I don't suggest that this is an easy task. However, as long as the Bendels, Silvermans, and their ilk continue to be reelected, the deer are dead.
This current commission is the most incompetent and unknowledgeable in Mt. Lebanon history. That's good for the pro-kill people who want the commission to believe the myths about deer that the pro-kill perpetuate each year.
L.
re: court ordered conciliatory meeting
I have a feeling that Mt. Lebanon is going to triumph on appeal. Having read the brief in this case, I think Scott may have, if you'll excuse the expression, "shot themselves in the foot" when they repealed their conditional use requirement for Twin Hills.
Although I am very sympathetic to the deer, there is a much larger issue at play here; that is, who gets to write the laws for a piece of property within a political boundary? Mt. Lebanon has not gone to the trouble of incorporating Twin Hills into the political boundaries of Mt. Lebanon, but Mt. Lebanon wants to treat Twin Hills as if it's their political entity. In actual fact, Mt. Lebanon is, as they aver, a property owner with the confines of Scott Township, and subject to Scott Township's laws. Does Mt. Lebanon, as a good citizen of Scott Township, attend Scott's commissioners meetings? Does Mt. Lebanon pay property taxes to Scott Township? What has Mt. Lebanon done to improve the life of a Scott Township public school student?
If Mt. Lebanon wants to hunt in Twin Hills so badly they should initiate the process of annexing the land, and quit trying to have it both ways. I would have more respect for the elected officials of Mt. Lebanon if they would act on their (so-called) "principles" instead of acting like the "above the law" Democratic politicians that they are. Unfortunately, our commission represents the majority of the 3 out of 10 registered residents who bother to vote; although given the choices we generally get, it's hard to blame the other 7 out of 10 for staying home!
My September 14, 2015 post Get your crayons out, Boys and Girls illustrates the ineffectiveness of killing deer in Twin Hills, if the goal is to reduce car/deer collisions. Twin Hills is in Scott Township. How is that going to help reduce deer/car collisions n Mt. Lebanon? Is it to justify Tony's $9000 fee to vet archers for the 25 acres in Twin Hills? Twin Hills is to be used for recreation. The only thing that our commissioners are doing is turning Twin Hills into a 25 acre playground for hunting for pleasure or sport.
Elaine
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