FOWL PLAY: Ducks creating issues at city park
Published 3:00 am Thursday, April 29, 2021
A couple of concerned citizens came before the Athens City Council during Monday’s meeting to express concern about a local park and its potential wildlife problem.
Scott Marshall and Teresa Todd spoke to the Council about issues being caused by the ducks at Big Spring Memorial Park, colloquially known as the “duck pond.”
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Todd, the president of the Athens-Limestone County Tourism Association, said she has to clean the porch of her building, which is located in the park, before people use the meeting room because it’s full of “stuff” left by the ducks.
Marshall said the current state of the park is “embarrassing,” and something needs to be done about the number of birds in the space.
“We have to clean it up, but we need to eliminate some of them, and we need to put a person in charge of cleaning up the pavilion because of the ducks,” he said. “If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go down there. Spend a few minutes, walk to the duck pond and tell me what you think about it.”
Todd said she knows the city cannot get “rid rid” of some of the ducks, because there would be “too many calls coming in with a lot of sad kids and parents.” She also said the pavilion has been a source of revenue in the past for the city, but she said it needs a “good cleaning.”
“What we need to do, in my opinion, is we need a new habitat for (the birds),” she said. “We need them on the other side of the duck pond, so they can have some shrubberies over there, get out of the sun over there and not be so active on our side.”
Parks and Recreation Director Bert Bradford said feelings are mixed on the duck issue.
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To those who visit the park for the birds, it’s not such a deterrent. For those who visit the park and want to sit in the pavilion, they run afoul of the ducks’ waste.
“It’s hard when dealing with people who have different beliefs on the subject,” Bradford said. “It is extremely hard to keep that pavilion clean because of the ducks. We can pressure wash it, and it gets dirty right behind us.”
Bradford said he might agree with Todd and Marshall on there being too many ducks in the park. He said his department has contacted the state’s fish and wildlife division in the past regarding the situation, but so far, they have ducked the issue.
Bradford said with concerns coming before the Council, his department will once again reach out to the state in an effort to find a solution. No matter what the solution may be, Bradford stressed that none of the ducks in the park will be harmed in any way.
“That is not our goal,” he said. “We wouldn’t do anything without going through a state agency first, and they would probably be in charge of catch and release.”
Bradford said a duck out of water can be terrifying to some visitors, but if you do not have any ducks at the “duck pond,” it changes everything.
“It’s a tough spot to be in to try and please everyone,” he said. “We may want to thin them out. We don’t want the park to become overpopulated, but we don’t want to lose enjoyment from any group.”