City to install no
feeding signs in park 
by Brian Wilson
The Star News
December 3, 2009 —  The City of Medford will spend $450 to ask people to not feed the wildlife.
Aldermen voted 4-3 Tuesday night to approve using park maintenance funds to install the signs in the park. While the signs will ask people to not feed the ducks, there is no city ordinance banning people from feeding animals, so if people feed wildlife there is little the city will be able to do about it.
The issue isn’t so much with people feeding ducks in the park, but with the duck and geese manure left behind from large duck populations. The city has received complaints in the past about the amount of manure on the Riverwalk. As part of the city’s Smart Growth comprehensive land use plan, there was a call for control of the duck population in the parks and this is the first initiative to be brought to council from the plan.
Mayor Mike Wellner said it would have been doing a disservice to the Smart Growth committee and those who helped develop the plan to not take up the issue when it was asked to be on the agenda. He noted it was a no-win situation for the city with people feeling strongly on both sides.
Aldermen Mike Bub, JoAnn Simek and Arlene Parent opposed installing the signs or imposing any prohibition on feeding the ducks.
“It is not going to stop them from pooping on the Riverwalk. Ducks don’t read signs,” Bub said. For Bub the pleasure gained by children and others in feeding the ducks outweighs the complaints some have of the mess left on the sidewalk. Instead of installing more signs along the Millpond, Bub challeneged the city to think outside the box at different ways they could use to keep the Riverwalk path cleared of duck and geese manure.
Bub also opposed the signs on the grounds that they are sending a mixed message to those using the parks. “We are just teaching kids to disobey city signs,” he said in response to Alderman Pat DeChatelets noting the signs were targeted at those who were putting large amounts of food down for the animals and not people who only fed small amounts.“You can’t have a sign that is a suggestion,” Bub said adding that he thinks the city is fixing a problem that doesn’t exist.
“Spending $450 on signs is wasting taxpayer dollars,” Parent said. She questioned how people could even afford to regularly feed the ducks noting that she called the Medford Cooperative and the cost of a 100 pound bag of cracked corn is $10.50 and that the ducks would go through that amount swiftly.
Simek’s oppostion was based more on the ducks being in the pond as a natural order of things and that nothing the city did would keep the ducks and geese from being there. She explained the city’s river and pond are surrounded by farm fields where the migratory geese stop to eat and rest. “It is nature. They have been here as long as I can remember,” she said.
While the ducks and geese may call the Millpond home and may stop here on their migration, Alderman Greg Knight noted by feeding them, residents were contributing to the ducks and geese wanting to stay.
“Let’s give the geese a year,” DeChatelets said of the signs. She suggested if the problem persists, they could look at an ordinance banning feeding and issuing tickets.
Alderman Mike Riggle, who had brought the Smart Growth committee’s suggestion to the council, said in addition to the unsightliness of duck manure on the sidewalks and grass, there was also a public health issue. He said he has spoken to doctors in the community who have seen children with diarrhea likely caused by the bacteria in duck manure. He said he would not give their names because he did not want them to be “besmirched” in the newspaper like he says he was in a letter published on the issue.
In the end, the council voted in favor of purchasing and installing the six signs at a cost of $450. Alderman Peggy Kraschnewski was absent from that portion of the meeting.
“It is a sign, it doesn’t mean anything,” Bub said after the vote.
In other business, aldermen:
´ Approved setting the combined tax rate for property taxes in the city at $23.28 per $1,000 of assessed value, this includes the city portion of the state, school district, county, and technical college district taxes. The rate is $1.03 per $1,000 of value higher than last year’s tax rate. What this means for city taxpayers in that the owner of a $120,000 home will pay $2,794.04 in property taxes this year compared to $2,670.36 last year, an increase of $123.68.
´ Assigned the name “Foundation Way” to the newly platted road in the Rodgers Subdivison located north of Allman Street and east of Impala Drive. The request came from the Medford Area Development Foundation which owns the property.
´ Approved a class B beer/liquor license for Woodland Inn with Marsha Nice as agent. After approving this license the city has three open tavern licenses. This is the only motel in the city to have a tavern license.
´ Approved continuing the existing lease agreement with the Medford Area Chamber of Commerce for the former Medford Public Library building until the end of the year. The chamber has leased the building from the city for the past 10 years and the lease came due on June 30 but that lapse was not discovered until this fall. According to Wellner, there should be a new agreement ready for council approval by January.
´ Approved changing the agent for Wal-Mart’s retail liquor license from Greg Norman to Randi Thom.
´ Ratified the mayor’s appointments of Dan Kraschnewski, Jim Seidl, Al Leonard, Scott Mueller, Parent, Clem Johnson and Joanne Wolf to one-year terms on the Medford Fire Commission. The commission is made up of both city and town residents with the numbers of representatives from each municipality set by the organization’s bylaws and based on how much each municipality pays to support the fire department. The commission oversees the Medford Area Fire Department and meets quarterly.

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