Spraying will be limited to one time in Jackson
BY DAVE BENJAMIN Staff Writer

JACKSON - There will be no second round of spraying provided by the township to kill gypsy moth caterpillars this spring. Residents will have the option of spraying their property themselves or hiring someone to do if for them.

Jackson will participate in the state's aerial spraying program to combat an expected infestation of gypsy moth caterpillars. It will cost Jackson about $500,000 to have approximately 13,000 acres sprayed one time.

In addition to the state spraying program, municipal officials had been considering the possibility of hiring a vendor to complete a second spraying of certain areas of the township.

"We did our level best to supplement with the state program," Councilman Scott Martin said. "It's a shame that the state couldn't be more proactive and have multiple vendors themselves."

Martin said the Township Council had every intention of exploring the option of hiring an outside vendor until the state notified the council that aid would be cut by about $43,000.

That news made it impossible to explore the option of spraying a second time using an aerial spraying service, the councilman said.

"We received a bid from a vendor to do the spraying by air, but unfortunately we had to reject that bid because it was missing the bid registration certificate," Martin said.

"In the interim we found out that our aid was cut. The state dropped a bomb on us by cutting our aid by 10 percent. The dollar value of the cut was about $43,000. That made it impossible to explore that option," he added.

Councilwoman Emily Ingram said it was unfortunate that Jackson representatives had a four-hour meeting about gypsy moth spraying with professionals from the state Department of Environmental Protection and the state Department of Agriculture and not one of the professionals said the decision had been made to spray Jackson only once.

"But nonetheless, we had decided to spray using Bt and in going forward the town Web site will provide a list of vendors residents can call if the need arises for additional spraying," Ingram said.

Gypsy moth caterpillars infested various areas of Jackson in the spring of 2007, causing damage to many residential properties. Jackson officials chose not to participate in the state's aerial spraying program last year. The damage wrought by the ravenous caterpillars led residents to complain to the mayor and council members.

State agriculture officials have said the anticipate 2008 gypsy moth infestation could be worse than what occurred in 2007.