Rats Infest Parts of Trenton
Non-Municipal Funds Decided On, Appointments Made, Trenton Days Scheduled!
TRENTON—The town of Trenton has begun looking into ways to lower its rat population.
The discussion follows a late June Select Board meeting where Susan Sargent complained about what was described as a rat infestation.
Sargent said she’s lived in town for 33 years. Her family has had horses, chickens, pigs. “We’ve never had rats,” she said.
That’s changed.
Christina Heiniger volunteered to work with the Health Officer John Bennett on possible solutions and funding through the state.
Now, Sargent said, they’re everywhere, almost down to the coves.
“They’re so destructive,” she said.
“I’ve had several calls about rats,” he said. “Rats are attracted to grain in feeders. I’ve talked with the code enforcement officer to see if there’s anything we can do to be proactive. I’m looking for suggestions. I’m out of ideas.”
“These rats most likely are the Norway rats,” Sargent said. She added of the females, “She can drop a litter and immediately get pregnant with another litter again.”
Norway rats have a little of 8-12 pups, four to seven times a year. They reach sexual maturity in approximately 2.5 months. The gestation period is 22 days. When living outdoors, they typically breed in spring and fall.
“They’re the most difficult to deal with. They’re destructive,” she said of the Norway rats, which she said have made it down to the coves and a mile radius beyond her home.
“My husband and my neighbors, we go out. There are so many of them. They shoot them. They have chewed walls,” she said. They’ve also chewed a hole in her granddaughter’s playhouse. There is nothing inside the playhouse, she stressed, to tempt them.
She said that they’ve put out bait, live traps, fresh traps. The rats are still going under a six-foot slab under their barn.
“We’ve put bait out. We’ve done live traps. We’ve done fresh traps. Everyone in our area is hunting them,” Sargent said.
“They’re nocturnal. So, if you here gunshots. We’re out hunting them at night,” she said.
They caught one in a trap. She said, “It was the size of a ferret.”
Rats and other rodents can carry diseases which can transfer to humans and pets.
A rat infestation at Harbor View Memorial Park in Portland led to both the city trying to eradicate the rats and others trying to save them.
In New York City, which has been trying to limit the number of rats for 60 years, they have been trying to reduce the rat population via the use of a rat contraceptive dispersed via bait. The hope is that a contraceptive, rather than poison will keep that population down.
In February, Flaco the owl died after a year-long life of freedom after his escape from the Central Park Zoo. He had hit a building in Manhatten’s Upper West Side. However, a necropsy discovered that the amount of rat poison in his body was life threatening. He also had a pigeon virus.
HOW TO HELP PREVENT A RAT INFESTATION
There are a few things homeowners can do to help prevent a rat infestation. Those include storing food and water properly, filling or sealing gaps and cracks around a structure’s doors, windows, and foundations. Yard waste and garbage, unused motor vehicles can all provide shelter for rats. So can trees and shrubs. Reducing clutter inside and out can reduce hiding places.
There are some other less obvious ways to deter rats as well. According to Forbes, “Rats find mint almost as repugnant as humans find them. If you’ve got a garden, go ahead and plant some sprigs. Sprinkle peppermint oil indoors where rats might be lurking or trying to get in. It’s a gentle yet effective method, plus it helps keep your space smelling fresh and clean.”
Other sources, such as MSN, say that planting allium, lavender, wood hyacinth, and sweet pea can help deter the rodents.
Cats and baited traps can also help.
Forbes also suggests that people find the source.
“Is there construction going on in your town? Overflowing dumpsters outside the restaurant on the corner? Sometimes no matter how secure your home or apartment might be, rats will still lurk in the vicinity,” Forbes writes. “But when rats infest a neighborhood, it’s considered a public health issue.”
TRENTON DAYS
Chip Roskon announced that Trenton Days will be July 27 at the Trenton Elementary School off the Bar Harbor Road. There will be games from 9-2. There will also be a dance later that day at the Trenton Grange Hall. The Trenton Parks and Recreation Committee have a Facebook page and are also looking for volunteers to help run the event.
The Parks and Recreation Committee will be working with the Trenton Chamber of Commerce on the event.
“Hopefully, it’ll be huge and you guys will love it,” Chip said.
NON-MUNICIPAL FUNDS
The bulk of the meeting was comprised of non-municipal financial requests. The just under $8,000 ask from the Ellsworth Public Library took up much of the meeting.
The town has been reimbursing residents for $30 cards when asked.
“This is a community resource,” Judy Sproule said. “The library is for everyone.”
“I hate, I hate, I hate, I hate when we have to charge everybody $30,” said Sarah Lesko, Ellsworth Public Library’s head librarian. People living paycheck to paycheck, she said, can’t front that money for themselves and family members.
A Trenton resident worried that if the town didn’t support the ask, then it would be denying library access to the people who needed it most.
The library ask was $5 per capita for the population of Trenton for the 2020 census. It’s been the same ask for the last four years.
Another women said that people of Trenton go to Ellsworth to use the library, not Bar Harbor where they pay to park in July. Another said that she does go to Bar Harbor or even Swan’s Island.
There are approximately 1,654 people in Trenton. There are 348 active Trenton library cards. Of those, 73 have been reimbursed.
According to the library’s website, “Library cards are free for Ellsworth residents and for those who live in a surrounding town that provides funding to the library. All others may pay a yearly fee (due upon card renewal) for a library card. This fee is $30 as of July 2021. For more information about why we need to charge for non-resident library cards, see our library funding page. There is a scholarship fund available for those who are unable to pay this fee.”
If the request had been granted, one-third of the town’s nonprofit/nonmunicipal budget of roughly $23,000 would have gone to the library. Some gathered worried about using that money for the library instead of needs such as hospice or the food pantry. The total requests for the list on the town’s warrant was $29,000 and there was just over $23,000 available.
“I just don’t feel like that’s fair to take money away from them,” said one man.
The Ellsworth YMCA and Trenton Chamber of Commerce are funded under a separate warrant article than the nonprofits.
SOLAR PETITION
The Select Board, Chair Fred Ehrlenbach said, is meeting with legal counsel about solar issues in two weeks at the board’s next meeting. This will occur in executive session.
Ehrlenbach said that he anticipates the attorney to make a recommendation to the board on what to do.
“I want to make sure we don’t end up in the same boat Bar Harbor is where they are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees,” Ehrlenbach said
The town has $8,000 budgeted for legal fees, he said. The town typically does not have to use those fees during most years.
In May, solar energy related changes to the town’s Land Use Ordinance were rejected 180-50. Those changes would have limited commercial solar development, capping it at 30 acres and increased buffers to lower the solar farms’ visibility.
However, the citizen group Neighbors Against More Large-Scale Solar Farms said those limits were not enough to stop deforestation and the lifestyle impacts on residential neighborhoods. The group has created a petition about the issue and hopes to have the town to vote on its proposal.
Much of the opposition focused on worries that the changes did not do enough to prevent large-scale, commercial solar farms. Worries also include fire access and the need for special equipment for fire response to the area, habitat displacement, and deforestation, changing the character of Trenton’s residential zones by allowing commercial large-scale solar farms, and what would happen after the lifespan of the solar farm (25-30 years).
Three solar projects in Trenton have already received approval before the moratorium. Those projects total approximately 60 acres.
There is a moratorium on commercial solar development until September 29.
APPOINTMENTS
The Select Board also appointed multiple people to multiple positions and committees such as harbor master and Appeals Board members.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
The Ellsworth Library’s Budget Briefing Report
CORRECTION: Many apologies. We had a typo in this line: In May, solar energy related changes to the town’s Land Use Ordinance were rejected 180-50. This has been corrected. And we’ve switched a pronoun to a name to help alleviate potential confusion.
If you’d like to donate to help support us, you can, but no pressure! Just click here.