Once again this year, the selectboard in Salisbury is giving Salisbury residents the opportunity of voting on whether or not we choose to spend around $25,000 to support the BLSG Mosquito control district. They are providing us with that opportunity because it is an expensive program that provides little benefit and is ecologically unsound. Last year the vote was close. I hope this year Salisbury residents will join me in voting no on Article 5 and removing ourselves from the district.
In the ’60s it was the Lake Dunmore/Fern Lake Association that organized and funded mosquito control. Back then they were using DDT. I remember the guy running the spray truck proudly telling me that the spray would kill everything from bullfrogs to butterflies. I don’t believe the current adulticides are as dangerous as DDT, but I do believe they pose threats to both people and our environment. I have opted out of the treatment program for my property but I know that the spray drifts onto my property and into my house. I can smell it. I would rather not support the program with my tax dollars. I would prefer that we not use adulticides or larvicides. As an ecologist, I strongly believe that even the safest of larvicides is affecting other insect larvae and larval salamanders.
I would prefer that those people who want to use pesticides pay for it themselves, arrange it privately, and keep it on their own properties.
Please vote no on Article 5.
Jim Andrews
Salisbury