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Surveys may be distributed to residents of certain neighborhoods in efforts to gather public opinion on Warsaw's deer population.
During a meeting Tuesday, the city's deer task force focused on making corrections and additions to a deer questionnaire. The task force will mail the survey within the next two months in hopes of generating an honest response from residents.
"We're far from making a decision on this matter," task force member Jeff Grose said at the beginning of the meeting. "We're interested in what residents have to say, both positive and negative.
"Given the possible options we're be dealing with, I wouldn't be comfortable with any decision we make unless it was made on a second or third reading."
Information also will be collected through observations by the task force. Members said they will begin studying deer numbers and activities in troubled areas such as Spring Hill Acres and properties along Country Club Drive.
Deer-related accident reports were presented by Police Chief Steve Foster, who reported 93 cases in the city and 826 in Kosciusko for 2005. Numbers remained relatively constant over the past three years, with 87 city and 824 county accidents reported in 2003.
Accident reports will be mapped out in the city to evaluate possible deer congregation areas to be studied further through the task force's observations.
"Finding an accurate total for deer won't be easy," certified state biologist Randy Millar of the Department of Natural Resources said. "For the most part, you're seeing the same numbers, day in and day out."
Millar attended Tuesday's meeting and provided information on the possible solutions the task force is considering.
Currently, Warsaw has done nothing to decrease deer populations, which Grose said could be the final decision pending information gathered and public reaction.
But if a solution is found to be necessary, considered tactics include regulated hunting, supplemental food strategies, fencing and repellents.
Options such as trap and transfer, predator introduction and sharpshooters were all said to be too costly and/or time consuming to be reasonable answers. Fertility control also was ruled out by Millar, who said the method would not be supported by the DNR.
"Whatever we do needs to be the safest public means for the problem," Foster said. "That will be the controlling factor of any decision made."
According to Grose, any option will weigh heavily on future survey response, DNR input and accident trends. A task force meeting is to be scheduled within the next four to six weeks.
Until then, members will work with the police department as well as the building and planning department to gather information on areas found to be experiencing deer overpopulation.
