Draper City Council Considering Extra Fee For Deer Removal
Aug 21, 2018, 7:09 PM | Updated: 9:32 pm
DRAPER, Utah – The Draper City Council has been debating whether citizens who request help removing deer should pay a fee.
The council voted in July to adopt an ordinance allowing the city to kill or relocate deer that create property damage or pose a threat to safety. City officials said the deer have been surprisingly adaptable to the urban environment.
“We used to ride up on that mountain all the time and there were hundreds of deer. Now, there’s hundreds of homes! Where’d the deer go? They came down here,” said Steve Green, a longtime Draper resident. “You can’t blame the deer. They have no place else to go. There’s a house everywhere they used to live,”
Green said the deer sometimes eat the squash in his garden. He said neighbors have had trouble with them as well.
According to the Draper Urban Deer Control Plan adopted by the city in July, citizens have reported the deer eating expensive ornamental plants. It also said the deer can pose a safety hazard for people on the roads.
The proposed plan would allow citizens to call the city about property damage done by urban deer. The city has contracted services through Humphries Archery for a hunter to evaluate the situation.
“It’ll involve bringing out some cameras. The hunter will come out and he’ll survey the situation. They’re going to make an assessment on the animals. Maybe it makes more sense to trap and remove them. If that’s the case, that’s what they’ll do,” said Draper Mayor Troy Walker.
If the hunter determines the deer should be killed, Walker said the hunter would use a crossbow. At a July city council meeting, the Chief John Eining with the Draper City Police Department said the cost for that service would be around $2,000 per location.
Mayor Walker said the city has capped what it will pay annually at $10,000. At a city council meeting Tuesday evening, members will consider whether citizens who use the service should be charged a fee.
Some are upset about the money the city may spend on the program. Fliers on cars outside city hall on Tuesday urged people to show up at the meeting.
