Councilman William Reynolds, R-Ward 5, speaks about the need to set up a new commission to discuss Jamestown’s deer population.

Councilman Bill Reynolds is hearing a consistent message from some city residents – do something about Jamestown’s deer population.

During the council’s most recent work session, Reynolds brought the issue up for a brief discussion. Little has been said about the deer since a couple of city residents attended a work session earlier this year.

“One thing that’s come up through some emails and phone calls is the forever dialogue on the deer,” said Reynolds, R-Ward 5. “We need to somehow get prepared to put something together, some sort of commission or citizens group where they can come in and give us their input, to include the experts, the Health Department people at the county. I’m not sure where this body fits in creating that other commission.. It’s starting to surface again and the deer are moving around. The fall’s not too far away. I don’t have the answer where to kick start that, so to speak.”

Earlier this year Robert Sisley told council members he captured 34 deer on camera near Barker Street and Linwood Avenue while counting 14 deer while walking from Allen Park toward Foote Avenue. Sisley has consistently asked the council to take action.

“We’ll have to reach out to the committee again,” said Tony Dolce, R-Ward 2 and council president. “If that’s what your pleasure is, we’ll talk to Joe about that and other council people. Anything that we work on would probably be over the summer so anything we enacted would be for later in the year.”

The issue of deer roaming the city has been a discussion point at council meetings for years, both from those who want to see the deer population thinned out and those who like the deer in the city and don’t want to see any changes.

Under former Mayor Eddie Sundquist, a special committee was established to review the growing population. That committee eventually recommended a controlled deer hunt using archers; however, the City Council voted against the recommendation due to safety concerns and several changes that were made at the last minute.

That plan would have selected 15 experienced, licensed volunteer hunters with archery equipment to hunt in isolated areas on property owned by the city. The five proposed areas would have been Jones Memorial Park, Jackson-Taylor Park, Bergman Park, Allen Park and the stormwater management pond on Buffalo Street. The hunters would have been in the woods and not near the open areas of the parks. They would have used archery equipment and been shooting from elevated positions.

The hunters would only have been allowed to kill antlerless deer, with each allowed to kill up to four deer, with half of the meat going to the Food Bank of Western New York. Warning signs would have been put up to let the public know the hunt was happening.