Do Blue River ratepayers want to pay for mosquito control?
Willow MacDonald would like to know.
The Thompson-Nicola Regional District director for Area B (Thompson Headwaters) plans to hold a public meeting on the topic in Blue River sometime this spring.
READ MORE: Mosquito sprayers at work (May 25, 2014)
The meeting would also look at recycling, as there has been some confusion among residents as a result of recent rule changes, she said.
“In the next two or three months I would like to have a meeting here in Blue River to talk about mosquitoes and recycling,” MacDonald said, “and I would like as many people as possible to come so we can have a reasonable conversation.”
Proposed boundaries for the mosquito control service would coincide with those of Blue River Improvement District, although the service would be offered through the TNRD, not BRID.
An estimate from BRID put the cost of mosquito control for Blue River at roughly $100,000.
On the other hand, an estimate given at a meeting held about six years ago put the cost at considerably higher.
MacDonald said she would ask TNRD’s environmental services department to estimate before the meeting the overall cost of a mosquito control service, how that would impact the average ratepayer within the boundaries and how effective it would be.
The answers to those three questions would then be brought to the meeting for people to discuss.
According to the TNRD website, the regional district has been providing mosquito control for approximately 40 years. The program initially relied on aerial application of pesticides such as malathion. More recently, the program has shifted to focus more on controlling mosquito larval populations using biological larvicides and other more environmentally sound practices.
READ MORE: Mosquito control service
Areas in the North Thompson Valley covered by the mosquito control service include a portion of Area A (Wells Gray Country), Area O (Lower North Thompson) and the districts of Clearwater and Barriere. Also covered by the service are Areas J, L, M and P, a portion of Area N, plus the municipalities of Sun Peaks, Kamloops, Chase and Logan Lake.
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