City still seeks way to get rid of crows

The Watertown City Council talked Monday night about the city's crow problems and why the birds returned after last week's hazing program ended Thursday night.

City Manager Mary M. Corriveau told council members that the city received about a half-dozen calls Monday from irate residents, saying that large groups of crows ended up in their neighborhoods. It appears the crows were chased from some streets to others, she said.

Last week, biologists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services led crow hazing efforts that, at first, appeared to be working. But low temperatures over the weekend may have caused the birds to move back into the city, she said.

The biologists shot pyrotechnics — fireworks that make screeching sounds — into the nearly black sky to scare the crows from their perches. They also used other harassment methods such as lasers and amplified recordings of crow distress calls, but didn't use air pellet rifles.

Mrs. Corriveau said that the city will continue to speak with USDA officials to see what else can be done to rid the city of the 10,000 to 15,000 crows that roost each night during the winter.

Councilman Joseph M. Butler Jr. wanted to know why the biologists didn't use the rifles to kill as many as 25 crows to scare them away, as was spelled out in this season's $5,950 contract with the USDA.

Mrs. Corriveau said that's one of the questions she'll ask the biologists. She'll also find out whether six city employees who were trained in the crow-dispersal methods could take over the hazing.

Mayor Jeffrey E. Graham asked when it is the responsibility of property owners to chase the birds away from their yards, noting that small "cannons" that cause loud banging noises are on the market just for this purpose.

"Do you want everyone in the city to have one of them?" Councilwoman Teresa R. Macaluso asked the mayor.

Councilwoman Roxanne M. Burns said she hasn't seen any crows in her neighborhood over the past couple of days, after having a large roosting population there two weeks ago. Since the hazing efforts ended, she said, she saw a large group across from the Jefferson County Office Building on Arsenal Street.

On Monday afternoon, David T. Coleman, caretaker of the Jefferson County Historical Society museum, said that the crows were back in full force, and they left a half-inch of droppings on the building's handicapped-access ramp that he had to clean, he said.

"Ooze is a polite word of what they left," he said.

In other business, council members discussed the next step now that all five have toured Mercy Care of Northern New York's nursing home last week.

Mr. Graham urged the city to start researching the deed and ownership issues of the 377,000-square-foot facility, which Samaritan Medical Center will close in two years when it opens a new, $46 million, 288-bed assisted-living center off Washington Street. He and other city officials are worried that the city will then be stuck with the structure.

Mrs. Corriveau stressed that a part of that research should be on whether there's information in the deed that would require the structure's title "be reverted" back to the Sisters of Mercy and the Roman Catholic Church.

"I don't know," she said. "That's one of the things we have to look at."