Editorial: Leadership needed on bug problem

Talk about it

We’re a bit concerned with Mitchell city government’s response to the terrible mosquito and gnat problem that has residents spending otherwise pleasant summer days indoors.

Granted, city employees have been paying attention to the problem. They’ve been counting the bugs they find in traps around the city, and they’ve been using that data to guide their placement of larvicide and their fogging of insecticide.

As of this writing, though, the city has been fogged only once. There seems to be no plan of attack for future fogging, but rather a wait-and-see approach. There has been no noteworthy discussion of mosquitoes or gnats at any recent City Council meeting, at least that we can recall.

And then there was this comment about fogging from Dusty Rodiek, the city’s director of parks, recreation and forestry:

“It’s as much a budget issue as anything,” Rodiek said Monday, referring to the roughly $2,000 cost of fogging the entire city. “I want to be responsible fiscally.”

While we appreciate fiscal responsibility by our government, and we realize Rodiek is a new hire, we nevertheless cringe at that statement. In a city with a total budget of around $30 million, $2,000 is a pittance, especially if it can buy some relief from a mosquito problem that has become a menace to the city’s residents.

How bad is it? Well, at around 7:30 p.m. Monday, it was 77 degrees and sunny in Mitchell with only a light breeze. A perfect night to be outside, right? Yet, because of the mosquito and gnat scourge, not a single soul (other than a foolish editorial writer and his children) was at Patton Young Park, typically one of the most-used sites in the city’s park system.

If people are staying inside to avoid the bugs, it means the bugs are quite literally stealing our summer from us. Beyond that, there’s also the risk of West Nile virus that a certain breed of mosquito poses.

Given the size of the problem and its impact on residents’ quality of life, plus the potential impact on their health, we’re disappointed by the lack of action on this issue. Why is there no announced plan of attack against the bugs? Why haven’t elected officials called any meetings, or used the twice-monthly City Council meetings, to make sure the city’s employees are doing all they can to reduce the bugs’ numbers? Why hasn’t the city budget been adjusted to make sure funding is in place for whatever manpower, equipment and chemicals are needed?

Few, if any, problems are more urgent right now in our city. Oh, sure, we’d like to see the Tower Building come down, and we’d like to see some progress made on the proposed community center, and we’d like to see flooded waterways and fields get an extended relief from the rain. Heck, we’d also like to see the oil leak stopped in the Gulf of Mexico.

But there’s not much we can do about any of those issues at this very moment. We suspect there are, however, some things that could and should be done today and throughout the rest of the week to make it safe for Mitchell residents to step outside this upcoming Fourth of July weekend.

Tags: our view, opinion, editorial