Berthoud Weekly Surveyor | Covering all the angles in the Garden Spot

Mosquito management

August 03, 2018 | Local News

By Rudy Hemmann

The Surveyor

At the July 24, 2018, meeting of the Berthoud Board of Trustees, more information was gathered concerning the management of adult mosquitos.

An information sheet on the issue states, “At the board meeting held June 5, 2018, the board directed staff to suspend any adult mosquito control practices until the board could review the current policy.” The document goes on to state the town’s pest management contractor, Vector Disease Control International, has continued with the larvicide program which is in place. The information sheet also gives information regarding where to find the minutes of prior board meetings on the town’s website www.berthoud.org. Once the website is entered, minutes of meetings can be found under the “government” tab by following the link titled “trustee document archive.”

The dates of prior meetings where mosquito issues were discussed are: March 14, 2017, March 28, 2017, May 16, 2017, and June 13, 2017

Videos of most board meetings are also available at the website under the “government” tab and by clicking on the link titled “trustee meeting videos” and then clicking on a second link titled “archived trustee meeting videos.” There is no video available for the May 16, 2017, meeting.

Rella Abernathy of the Boulder Integrated Pest Management Program and Katie O’Donnell from the Larimer County Public Health Department were in attendance at the meeting. Abernathy gave a presentation and fielded questions regarding the mosquito management practices used in Boulder. O’Donnell answered questions related to Larimer County’s mosquito management efforts. Following her presentation, O’Donnell spoke with the Surveyor and stated if the vector index went above Larimer County standards, the health department could mandate the town spray for adult mosquitoes.

Following board discussion a motion which directed town staff to adopt a no-adulticide spray policy for the remainder of 2018 and the larvicide policy be reviewed by the board at a future meeting. The motion was seconded and approved on a split vote of four to three. Trustees Maureen Dowd and Paul Alaback joined Mayor Will Karspeck in voting “No.”

The trustees voted unanimously to notify Larimer and Weld counties of the intent to coordinate November elections with the counties.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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