City concerned about damage to memorial
By Ben Rodgers
The Manawa Common Council agreed on a resolution at its Monday, Sept. 18, meeting to permit an hour-long geese harvest.
“Basically it’s a one day, one hour, to get rid of the nuisance geese in the veterans park area,” Manawa Mayor John Smith said. “It’s a family flock. Both of the parents have broken wings so they never left the area after molting.”
The family of six or seven geese poses a problem for upcoming plans to the Manawa Area Veterans Freedom Park.
“It’s the only immediate option anyway,” Smith said. “Like I said we’re going to put $90,000 worth of granite there to honor our veterans. If you go there and want to take a look, it’s a pretty good size poop pile.”
Other options were discussed, one being a roundup.
The Iola Lake District completed a roundup earlier this year where 69 geese were rounded up and relocated at a cost of more than $2,700.
The council was in agreement that the roundup method would be to costly at this current time.
Oiling the eggs was also discussed, but Smith said that method would be too time consuming. The plan is to put the granite in at the park in the next month.
The roundup will happen at the end of this week or early next week. Hunters can go through an application process and background check if they want to participate.
Because it’s so few geese the harvest is expected to last an hour. It will take place around 7 or 7:30 a.m.
“We really need to control that population,” Smith said.