EDITORIAL: Mosquito spraying

It looks like Hutchinson could lose its mosquito spraying. The city says it might not have money to spray next year, and since there’s been no citizen outcry over the issue, spraying could be scrapped altogether.
That’s difficult to believe after the way residents demanded mosquito control a few years ago during a couple of summers when no one could stand to be outside at dusk. Fortunately, the pesky, biting insects have been less of a nuisance during the past three summers, thanks to spraying, and possibly because of the drier weather.

Now that money is especially tight, spraying — which costs $44,000 a year, representing 0.4 percent of the city’s $11.2 million general fund — could become a budget fatality. Several weeks ago, city leaders studied the possibility of paying for it with a separate tax levied by a mosquito control board. The City Council nixed the idea after determining that the cost of establishing a mosquito control board would have been higher than keeping spraying within the city’s general fund. Now some on the council believe there’s no room for spraying in the general fund, either.

But do residents think spraying should end? At a City Council meeting in late July, Council Member Kay Peterson said she’s heard from many residents who don’t want it to end. “This is the one item I’ve probably heard from the most people about,” she said. And in the Leader’s unscientific online reader poll conducted two weeks ago, 82 percent of the 166 Hutchinson residents who responded said they want it to continue.

If residents want mosquito control, they need to tell their city leaders. One way is to attend next Wednesday’s council meeting at 5:30 p.m. Another way is to call council members at the numbers listed below.

Sometimes a few phone calls are all it takes to gets results.
Mayor Steve Cook: (320) 587-7108
Kay Peterson: (320) 587-2348
Jim Haugen: (320) 587-8425
Bill Arndt: (320) 587-6882
Casey Stotts: (320) 587-6015

Editorials are written by Publisher Matt McMillan and Editor Doug Hanneman. They can be reached at mcmillan@hutchinsonleader.com, or hanneman@hutchinsonleader.com.