O'HARA: Residents last week urged council to reduce the number of deer hunters allowed in the township instead of the deer. Karen Connor, a resident of Rockingham Drive, submitted a petition of 50 signatures from neighbors who fear an archery hunting program established years ago by the township. 'Everyone has experienced deer in their yards, or heard of deer hitting cars,' Connor said. 'But we're not as concerned with that as with hunters near our children and pets.' The township uses White Tail Management, a group of tested and trained hunters limited to specific areas of the community, to pare the overabundance of deer. The archers are not permitted to hunt on private property without permission, and they use tree-stands only. They are required to recover arrows from the ground. Connor told council she did not feel comfortable with hunters using the wooded area that borders her Oak Hill Manor neighborhood. She toured the area between her home and Squaw Valley, where the hunters frequent, with township manager Doug Arndt and township engineer Bob Robinson. Connor said she didn't like the close proximity to her children and pets, and asked that the hunters be removed from the park, as well as a second area near Epsilon Drive in RIDC Park. 'I'm not trying to stop the program,' Connor said. As the program stands, council would need to displace only two or three hunters. But, any areas not hunted lend to re-populating the deer herd. 'We like to spread it out,' Marshall Treblow, council president, said. 'They migrate throughout the township, but if neighbors feel it is unsafe, we will work with you.' Council vice-president Jim Zaenger asked that statistics be collected for both deer-related car accidents and archery accidents. 'We should know if you have well-founded fears,' he said. Marjorie McDonald, another resident of Rockingham Drive, said that she's seen hunters scouting behind her property. 'My yard goes back 750 feet. I walk my dogs three times a day and I've seen arrows on the ground,' she said. Council said it would consider a compromise to limit the season or times when hunters are in the Oak Hill Manor neighborhood. For example, a six-week hunting season now is followed by a secondary season in December. Connor said she would be more amenable to the idea of hunters later in winter, when children aren't out playing as much. That, or perhaps limiting their time to early mornings or weekdays. Both Arndt and Councilman Chuck Vogel pointed out that the hunters are volunteers. They said if restrictions are placed on them, they might go somewhere else. 'These people have jobs,' Vogel said. 'If you tell them they can only hunt during the day, they might not come. Deer are at their most active now, during the fall at dawn and dusk, Arndt said. Council needs to make it as attractive as possible to get the hunters into the township, Vogel said, and decrease the size of the deer herds. 'These guys hunt when they're able to,' Arndt said. 'It's their schedule that counts.' Zaenger told the audience that council felt it had found a safe way to get rid of a hazard. Since White Tail hunters have been contracted, council has received few complaints and the number of deer-vehicle accidents has declined, he said.

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