Duck, Duck Geese! Controlled Hunt EyedWarsaw Park Board agreed to send a favorable recommendation to Warsaw City Council to allow a controlled goose hunt in the city limits. The recommendation will be required to go before the city council to change its ordinance to allow for a specific time period for the hunt and allow a firearm to be discharged within the city limits. The only people who would discharge firearms would be DNR officers, and there are several officers from Indiana who have volunteered to conduct the hunt. During Tuesday’s park board meeting, Warsaw City Council representative to the park board Diane Quance said she has been working with former park board city council representative Dan Hampton and the Department of Natural Resources to bring a goose hunt to Warsaw city limits to assist with goose control. During the board’s June 22 meeting Hampton, who then served as city council representative to the park board, asked for the board’s support in joining the DNR to further control the goose population by having a controlled hunt in September in Warsaw. Quance said DNR suggested the city conduct the hunt during the regular goose hunting seasons in September and February in Warsaw city limits on Center, Winona and Pike Lakes. DNR is in the process of determining areas on those lakes, according to human population, where it is safe to conduct the hunts. “They won’t be out on the lake shooting everywhere. They will determine safe areas in order to conduct the hunt,” Quance said. Quance said if the hunt is approved by the city council, notices will be given to adjacent property owners so they will know when the hunt will take place. Hampton is drafting an ordinance for the proposed goose hunt and he and Quance will present it to the city council to ask for the exception to discharge a firearm in the city limits for the hunt. In other business, the board reviewed a 2012-2016 master plan priority list from Pat Brown, of Site Scapes. Brown said he sent out surveys to park board members, park staff and city officials to define 5-year, secondary, and long-term priorities for the city. Some of the top priorities included developing a water splash pad, updating the park sign on Detroit Street with an electronic message board at Central Park, and reroofing the restroom building at Central Park. Brown will ask the three entities to provide a time frame for the top priorities in years they want to see the priority projects completed. That information will be reviewed at the May park board meeting. Park Superintendent Jon Garber reminded political candidates political signs are not allowed on park property. He also said the free lunch program for children this summer will be moved from Bixler to Municipal Park due to a water main project on Detroit Street that is scheduled.
