To borrow from Ron Burgundy, we have a breaking and urgent news bulletin – Jamestown has a deer problem.

Of course, anyone who lives in Jamestown knows this. And, as the four incumbents on the City Council know, trying to deal with the deer problem is a no-win situation. The council can’t get agreement amongst city residents that there even is a deer problem.

Roughly half of the population is tired of the deer eating everything in sight or of dealing with the occasional diseased deer in their yard. Half of the city loves the deer, feeds the deer and generally encourages the deer to remain as unpaid boarders in back yards throughout the city. Acquiescing to one group upsets the other. It’s one reason nothing has been done over the past two decades.

We reiterate, as well, that rising deer populations encroaching on urban areas is a regional problem. Jamestown can approve all the in-city deer hunts it wants, the deer problem isn’t going away until the regional population comes down. There was a loud outcry from those who didn’t want hunting inside the city limits the last time the city discussed the deer population. We can understand the safety concerns, but those safety concerns mean that efforts to cull the population that is ending up inside the city must take place outside the city.

Lastly, it’s worth noting the DEC is aware of the problem. Generally we don’t see many male deer inside the city limits. Mayor Kim Ecklund said last week the DEC is considering changing hunting regulations in part because there is a mass overpopulation of does, so regulations as to how many female deer hunters are allowed to kill per season are changing.

That’s good, because we all know that a regional approach is the best way to decrease the number of deer coming into Jamestown. We hope this is a short discussion by the council, because we have bigger fish to fry than a bunch of freeloading deer.