Orion Township will provide up to $1,000 to purchase materials to construct bat houses for township properties, although not everyone on the board of trustees thinks the idea will ‘fly’ with residents.
The board voted on Aug. 4 to approve the recommendations of the West Nile Virus Committee, who recommended that the township provide funds to purchase materials to construct bat houses, with the intention being that bats eat mosquitoes possibly carrying the virus. The houses will be constructed by township citizens attending a workshop under the direction of the Orion Senior Center and/or the Friends of Bald Mountain.
The township currently has 15 bat houses that were donated and constructed by Carpenter Elementary, which the committee recommended placing on township property including parks and pump station sites.
“One of the things we learned are that bats are not really that harmful,” said supervisor Jerry Dywasuk, who sat in the committee meetings. “The bat houses presented to the township were given to be used in our parks.”
The houses would not be placed anywhere where they would be too close to citizens.
“I don’t know if the bat is the answer to our West Nile problem,” said trustee Richard Tomczak. “I have a problem with spending $1,000 of taxpayer’s money…I don’t think we should be using that to build houses for township property.”
Dywasuk said whoever gets a house would have to sign some kind of release saying that would use the bat house in the township and not take it to another location.
“The materials can be donated and the work can be done by seniors, Boy Scouts, whoever,” said resident Roy Blankenburg, who is assisting the West Nile Virus Committee with the bat house project.
“They can be in some places where people want them, and if they don’t want them there they won’t be there,” clerk Jill Bastian said.
Treasurer James Marleau asked the township attorney what kind of liability the bat houses might bring to the township.
“We don’t control the bats,” he said.
The attorney said he did not see much of an issue of liability for the township.
“The bats are there already,” Bastian said.
Tomczak said he could not support the project because he had heard from some residents who were not in favor of it.
“Some people are afraid of bats,” he said.