Hunting regs to be revisited in Stratford
By Kevin O’Brien
Stratford Village Board members held off on revising the village’s hunting ordinance last week after a trustee raised concerns about putting limits on the number of permits for local property owners and suggested a more comprehensive overhaul of the ordinance.
Trustee Damon Englebretson, who voted to recommend the revisions as a member of the Public Safety Committee, said he had “buyer’s remorse” about the proposals after further considering their impact on village residents who want to hunt on village land.
“Not that I changed my mind, I just misunderstood what was happening,” he said.
Englebretson took issue with the idea of limiting the number of permits available for two of the village’s three hunting zones. Under the proposal, a maximum of 10 permits
See STRATFORD/ page 3 Stratford
Continued from page 1
would be issued between the general archery zone and the less restrictive zone on the outskirts of the village, where shotguns are allowed on larger lots.
Instead of setting numerical limits in those zones, Englebretson suggested restricting hunting to village residents and employees only. He said local taxpayers should get the benefit of hunting on village land instead of opening it up to those from other areas.
“Honestly, I think the count is not an issue if you get rid of the outside people and it’s only village residents,” he said. “In some regard, I think it’s going to self-regulate. If you go out there, and there’s too many people there, you’re probably not going to come back the next night.”
By allowing only village residents to hunt on village land without permit, he said it would also eliminate paperwork for the police department, which would have been tasked with reviewing and issuing permits under the ordinance changes recommended by the committee.
Englebretson said he doesn’t have a problem with the village only issuing five permits for the special permit archery zone, an area closer to the center of the village, which is only opened to hunting if the board decides it’s needed to reduce the local deer population.
At last month’s committee meeting, Englebretson also suggested allowing rifles to be used in some of the more remote areas of the village, including a stretch of 250 mostly undeveloped acres in the northeast corner where shotguns are already allowed. Englebretson said it’s unlikely that a rifle round would travel beyond a person’s multi-acre lot, but local police were worried about the safety of neighboring property owners and others within range.
After the issue was first brought to the board by hunters in October, Englebretson said he looked into an ordinance the village adopted a year and a half ago, but he couldn’t find any record of the public being notified.
“I didn’t understand why we would pass an ordinance and then not publish it,” he said. “That was a mystery to me.”
Englebretson said he’s concerned that village residents are not being treated the same when it comes to hunting rights. As an example, he said there are about 25, one-acre parcels on the south side of the village where people are allowed to archery hunt, while on the north side, no hunting at all is allowed on parcels with 10 acres or more.
“Let’s address all of these issues, get it right, and bring it together in one package,” he said.
Other trustees agreed to refer the issue back to the Public Safety Committee for further discussion, with the eventual goal of voting on a comprehensive rewrite of the ordinance.
“I do agree that it is better to address all of the issues, including the maps, so when it is published for the community, it’s not piecemeal,” said trustee Todd Belter. “That’s typically when the confusion occurs and creates issues with the police department.”
Other business
■ Delaine Vetter, a resident on Monarch Street, told the board that the new concrete poured in front of her house during a project last summer had sunk about two inches, creating a safety hazard. She wanted to make sure the issue was addressed before the contractor’s one-year warranty expires.
DPW Scott Dennee said he thought the issue was caused by the concrete heaving, but he agreed to put a string in front of her property this spring to see if it has dropped.
■ The board approved a motion to do timber marking on village property at 120300 STH 153. Trustee Dale Heil said the DNR has granted the village permission to do river crossings this winter, so now is the time to get the timber marked.
■ The board approved the purchase of a new pump for the wastewater treatment plant, at a cost of $7,271 from Xylem Water Solutions.
■ The board approved a new engineering services agreement with McMahon, which spells out the hourly rates charged for the company’s services when needed at the sewer plant. Any proposed charges beyond $5,000 would have to be approved by the board in a separate agreement.
■ DPW Dennee said a proposed solar power project will be discussed at a meeting this week, with the water and electric utility considering whether it wants to start its own project or buy in to another municipality’s system. He said the system would require about five acres per megawatt, and the village is looking at 2.5 acres for a halfmegawatt.
■ The board voted to declare an old Panasonic Arbitrator dash camera as “surplus property,” allowing police chief Thomas Koontz to donate it to the Spencer Police Department. Koontz said his department is no longer using the camera, which is eight years old and estimated to only be worth about $65. He said the Spencer PD will use it as a temporary fix before it purchases a more modern camera system.
■ Chief Koontz said he received a complaint from someone who was ticketed for parking on the street overnight and questioned why customers at Klemme Sales were allowed to do so. DPW Denneee said Klemme’s has been exempted from the winter parking rules, but he said it would be nice to limit that to one side of the street for snow plowing purposes. He agreed to talk to the business about changing the exemption.
