MANCHESTER – A new member of council and a new non-lethal method of dealing with geese problems were subjects presented during the latest Township Council meeting.
Judy Noonan took her oath of office and her spot on the dais as the newest council member. Noonan previously served as the mayor’s confidential aide under former Mayor Robert Arace and current Mayor Joseph Hankins. In that role she served as liaison to the township’s senior services office. She also previously served as a member of the Berkeley Township Council when she was a resident of that municipality.
She was appointed to fill the council seat vacated when Councilwoman Roxy Conniff resigned due to her move from Manchester Township to Tuckerton.
“I will do my very best to serve the town and I will continue doing everything I did to help the seniors,” Noonan said.
She added that there were too many signs seen around town regarding for sale signs, signs for power washing and other things “that are really supposed to be taken down after a time and I’d like to see code enforcement look into this as it makes the town look cheap. I see them on poles and on the ground and I think it is something we need to go after.”
Geese Contract Criticized
During the portion of the meeting when members of the public can speak about any issue, several members of the Animal Protection League asked the governing body to cancel the contract the township has with Goose Control Technology. Instead, they were urged to use the organization’s free habitat modification program which is humane and is used in many towns and businesses across the state.
Mayor Joseph Hankins told The Manchester Times prior to the meeting that the contract with the firm was first established in 2018 and he had voted for it while serving on council at the time. He noted that high fecal coliform levels had been causing closures of Harry Wright Lake which is the only operating swimming lake within the township currently and that other efforts had been tried with no success.
During the meeting, the mayor said he was open to working with the organization to consider other options but for now, the contract would still be in place as the geese population had been drastically reduced and the fecal count lowered.
According to township documents the contract covers services at Harry Wright Lake and Pine Lakes and covers dead bird removal, hazing (which uses lasers and noise makers), egg treatment (addling) used to eliminate a population increase with resident geese that nest in the area and geese removal during the annual goose molt when the geese cannot fly. They are snared with a wing net and removed from the site and cannot return.
APL members Doreen Frego of Saddlebrook and Valerie DeVine of Lake Hiawatha spoke during the public comment period along with Susan Kearny of Manchester, Allison Lemke of Lacey and county resident Cory Suga.
Frego noted that geese will be mottling soon and they called for their protection while also describing how the company was suffocating the geese with gas once collected from the lake. They each urged the governing body to reexamine the options available that would have the geese relocated from the site but without causing their painful demise.
Mayor Hankins said he and the council would be looking into other options and further investigating what could be done but also noted that the geese were proven to be the cause of the environmental issues that caused the lake to be closed previously and that residents and visitors deserved to be able to swim in that lake.
It was with some irony that a goose was spotted on municipal complex grounds by the entry point to the night’s council meeting where the bird was seen after the meeting concluded.
The mayor also issued a proclamation to township first responders in honor of National EMS Week during the meeting.
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