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Politics & Government

Oakdale Council Favors Deer Hunts, Ban on Salt Licks

The council decided a full ban on feeding of deer would be too difficult to enforce.

The Oakdale City Council approved of measures aimed at making the city a little less hospitable to deer, at its meeting Tuesday, Aug. 9.

The council asked staff to draft an ordinance that would prohibit keeping salt licks in yards, and approved plans for deer hunts over four weekends in October and November.

Hunting areas will be in areas where there have been complaints about deer, car-versus-deer accidents or both, said Oakdale Public Works Director Brian Bachmeier.

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Sharpshooters from the Metro Bowhunters Resource Base will do the hunting, and they’ll be restricted to six sites (which don’t include the ) with the possibility of adding a few more sites where they’ve had requests from homeowners. 

In 2010, the group killed 24 deer in Oakdale, according to Bachmeier’s report to the council.

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“It does help thin the deer population out a little bit,” said Oakdale Mayor Carmen Sarrack, “and being an insurance agent, I’m not crazy about deer in a metropolitan area to begin with, so I’m in agreement with going ahead with the program.”

Council members debated the possibility of prohibiting residents from having any grain, fodder, salt licks or other food from being within 5 feet of the ground, but decided such an ordinance would be difficult to enforce.

Bachmeier estimated in a report to the council that addressing three complaints per year could cost as much as $5,000 because officers might have to secure a warrant to inspect a person’s back yard.

Oakdale City Council members Lori Pulkrabek and Paul Reinke raised concerns about the potential cost of enforcing such an ordinance, but ultimately the council passed the salt-lick ban as a more limited option.

Oakdale City Council member Stan Karwoski said he wanted to have an ordinance on the books so that in addition to city enforcement, neighbors and homeowners associations could self-police.

“I think most residents, if they knew it was illegal to feed deer, they could just go up to another resident and say ‘that’s illegal’ and in most cases the situation would be handled,” Karwoski said. Townhome associations and homeowners associations, he said, “like to leverage our ordinances.”

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