Tom Nelson, a current Chautauqua County legislator and former City Council member, speaks about plans to curb the city’s deer population.

Another commission to discuss Jamestown’s deer population is being formed.

Tony Dolce, R-Ward 2 and City Council president, announced the new commission during Monday’s City Council work session. It’s the second such commission in the past few years, and Dolce’s announcement comes after Bill Reynolds, R-Ward 5, brought the issue up during the council’s April 22 work session.

“In the public there’s been a lot of people talking about it,” Dolce said this week.

Councilman Joe Paterniti, R-Ward 4, will chair the committee with Reynolds and councilman Andrew Faulkner, R-Ward 6, also serving. Dolce said the committee will also include members of the public by invitation as well as the state DEC. Meetings will take place during the spring and summer with possible action by the fall.

“It’s not an easy task,” Dolce said. “Ask our legislator, he’ll tell you. We’ll discuss it again and see if there is another plan and bring it forward. The committee will be started back up and we’ll start looking at some long-range plans that we could possibly do.”

The legislator Dolce referred to was county Legislator Tom Nelson, D-Jamestown. Nelson is a former City Council member who chaired the last Deer Management Committee that ultimately recommended a plan that was not approved in a divided 5-4 council vote.

“I was glad to see in the paper today that Councilman Bill Reynolds was bringing up the deer problem,” Nelson said during Monday’s meeting. “It’s still a problem. And I know, because I served on that council for six years. There are many more problems, many more pressing issues, that you have to deal with. This is one of them and it does need to be addressed.”

The plan Nelson proposed would have selected 15 experienced, licensed volunteer hunters with archery equipment to hunt in isolated areas on property owned by the city. 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.

Nelson said Monday the narrative that there were last-minute changes that were proposed that led council members to vote against the plan is untrue. He said the only change was limiting the area from a citywide hunt to one or two of the City Council wards – a proposal to assuage concerns the Deer Management Committee had heard from some city residents.

“At that time there were members who were for it and members who were against it and some who were undecided,” Nelson said. “We worked for a year. We talked with people, mayors of other cities, police officers, police chiefs in other cities where it had been done and where it had worked. I think it can be done. I think it can be done safely. We did our research. And I agree, safety should be a top priority. I’m hopeful the council will pursue this. I know it’s going to take a little courage. I know there are people out there who are opposed to it. So I hope you do the right thing and look into it, propose it and see what you can do. Because it’s still a problem.”