For the sake of propriety Monday night, District 6 Councilor Giovanni Recupero referred to the city’s rodent problem.
But when talking about rodents, Recupero made it clear that he was referring to the city’s longtime rat problem with a motion asking the City Manager for more information about where and how often parts of Chelsea are baited with rat poison.
In addition, Recupero pointed out a program he helped put in place in the City for residents who want their properties baited for rodents at no charge.
“This was put in place many years ago,” he said. “If you have problems in your yard, and you are the owner of a house, this city, I think it is the only city, that gives you money to bait. They come and they bait it for free.”
Recupero said the rodent baiting forms are available at City Hall in the Inspectional Services Department.
“The other thing is that right now there is a big rat, rodent, let’s put it in a good way, a rodent problem in our city,” said Recupero. “That’s with every city in the surrounding area, they have a rodent problem. So, how are we combatting it?”
With the public works department baiting for rodents in the sewers, Recupero said he would like to see a report with more information about the program.
“How many times do they actually bait these sewers, and where are the places in our city that have the most rodent population?” the councilor asked. “They can tell the infestation of rodents in sections of our city, so if certain parts of our city are more concentrated with these rodents, maybe we should find a way to put more resources to that area. There’s nobody on this council who knows how many times they actually bait for rats, I don’t know.”
But he said he wants the residents to know that the City Council is working very hard to fix the problem with the rodents.
“You can’t eliminate it, because they have been around for millions of years, but you can control it,” Recupero said. “What I really want to know is how many times do they bait, how many rodents do we actually have, and how do we go about trying to fix it.”
Recupero said he hopes to have more information about the rodent problem by the Council’s next meeting.
“This has been a problem every time we have construction going on in our city it gets worse and worse, but Councilor Recupero does bring some valid questions and some valid statements regarding we need to work not only with the city and (inspectional services) but we also need the residents … to follow up if they have issues with rodents,” said District 8 Councilor Calvin Brown.