A large number of people attended the Alva City Council Monday, June 17. After a lengthy meeting and executive session, those who stayed had the opportunity to address the council.

Mayor Kelly Parker cautioned, "The council is not allowed to debate anything you say. We will listen." He also asked Councilmember Brandon Sherman to time the speakers and signal when their two minutes were up.

Most of those present talked about the recent citywide spraying for mosquitos.

Steve Thompson: "I'm here to ask that we stop the citywide spraying for mosquitos. Insects worldwide are declining rapidly. Just a couple of examples from here in town: Prior to the spraying I had a really large population of green lacewings in my yard, which are important predators on aphids and other small insects. And after spraying I've got none. I went to Hatfield Park Saturday morning out at the pond, saw one dragonfly. That was it.

"Insects are really important to us as pollinators, as predators on other insects. We have other ways of protecting ourselves from mosquitos: insect repellants, wearing long sleeves. There's other ways of controlling mosquito populations: draining standing water, controlling vegetation, things like that. Again, I'd like to ask we stop the citywide spraying."

Aaron Place: "I'm here as a father and an ecologist, actually. I've got training as a vertebrae ecologist. I'm here to ask you to stop spraying the citywide mosquito spraying as well. I have to go along with the comments Dr. Thompson made, and I have to add that if the spraying is working now, there's a pretty good chance that it won't be working in the future. Most everyone is familiar with antibiotic resistant bacteria. Mosquitos do exactly the same thing to the stuff we use to control it also. Like Dr. Thompson said, there's lots of other safer ways to control mosquitos.

"I'm an actual advocate for bat boxes. For better or for worse, I had a colony of bats take residence in my house a couple of years ago. I didn't have a single mosquito that year. We could strategically place bat boxes in some of the local parks and various locations around town and I think they would make a dent in the mosquito population in town without spraying toxic chemicals."

Lenny Reed: "I just want to support Dr. Pace and Dr. Thompson and their concern with the pesticide that it will have an effect on bees and I don't know if it is true or not but when the city was spraying last time there was a radical decrease in feral cats and of course the feral cat population does also keep rodents and things under control."

Jennifer Page: "I also have a concern about the mosquito fogging. I'm not a scientist like Dr. Pace and Dr. Thompson. My concern is more about the way it is being communicated to the community. I wasn't aware that the fogging had started until Dr. Place told me on Thursday. I understand that it was released via Facebook on the sixth but that notification didn't actually show up for me until yesterday (June 16) after it had already started. I don't know that that's the most effective means of communicating with the community. I think it's something that we ought to be discussing in a variety of other ways."

Tanner Smith: "I'm also speaking out about the fogging. I was reading about it today, and from what I understand the (mosquito) species that carries West Nile is what we're spraying for doesn't actually hatch until later on in the season. And from what I know, the fogging only kills airborne mosquitos so it kind of seems like a waste of time and money to spray for something that hasn't even hatched yet and doesn't kill the hatchlings."

Margaret Thompson: "I'm against the spraying also. I am just concerned about "us." There's known carcinogens and other irritants and it seems like everyone's got enough allergy problems without giving them more respiratory problems with the spray. It's hard to coordinate not going outside, not having your dog outside. We can't have our dog in the house because I'm allergic to the dog. What do we do with the dog during the spray? And you know, (I'm) just concerned about children and the human beings in the town."

Other Issues

Meagan Caldwell: "Can I speak to two different issues we have today?

"First I just wanted to be informative about (a resolution) about establishing the investment policy. It's my understanding that the treasurer in Alva doesn't hold a securities license, which would just mean that his investments would be limited to things he can place with a bank. I assume that there would be a requirement that it couldn't be placed at his bank because he is the president of a bank (Trent Goss is president of Hopeton State Bank), but I wanted to know or wanted you to think about if or how you will decide on what bank those will be placed at if they're CDs and also if there is the possibility of fees when you withdraw those if it wasn't approved for the next year. If you put something in a CD for one year, it's got a very low interest rate. If you put it in a long term one at a higher interest rate and then have to take it out because it isn't approved, that would be a huge problem, a huge fee issue.

"My other is about the fire department fees. I just wanted to speak a little bit about some research I've done. I spoke at length to the Oklahoma Insurance Department today about home insurance policies and their coverages for something like that. A regular primary home would have a little bit of coverage built in for fire department response, but landlord policies, secondary homes in many cases, vacant properties, none of those are going to have that built in.

"I know there are some places where they speak to billing those that are in the county for grass fires or something and regulating how they do that. But I also spent time on the phone today with cities that are in the vicinity of Alva that are between 4,000 and 6,000 population and there are none that bill a fire department fee, and I spoke to about 12. There are none that bill a fire department fee for those people that live within the city limits."

Larry Horn: "I'd like to address an ordinance the city has making beekeeping unlawful in the city limits. I think it should be deleted. This should be deleted because the Oklahoma Apiary Act and Rules which obviously is in conflict with the City of Alva. It is legal according to the state of Oklahoma Apiary Act and Rules to keep bees in any municipalities or county in Oklahoma. And the only thing the city can do is it can have some say as to where a colony is placed.

"If I didn't use all my time, I'd like to say that I'm against the spraying also."

Council Remarks and Inquiries

Council members have an opportunity to address the council just before the meeting ends.

Councilmember Daniel Winters said, "I just want to thank everyone for coming out and voicing your opinions and concerns. This is probably the best turnout we've ever had to a city council meeting, and sticking around through the long executive session.

"And also thank you to the police department and everybody else that was involved in Pack the Park. That was a really great event that I was fortunate enough to get to attend this year, and it was fantastic. Thank you guys for all the hard work you put into that."

Mayor Parker concluded the meeting, "Thank you for Councilman Winters remarks. We do appreciate your being here and we always welcome the feedback. And we'll take the information and take it back and see if there's any action that needs to be taken. Thank you, guys."