Orion Township might soon take advantage of help from some winged friends in preventing West Nile Virus.
The Orion Township Board of Trustees voted on July 21 to forward a request to allocate $1,000 of the West Nile Virus prevention funds for bat houses to the West Nile Virus Committee. The committee is to consider the request and report back to the board at the Aug. 4 meeting.
Lake Orion resident Rosalie Ward, a member of the committee, brought the request to the board after hearing about similar proposals in Royal Oak and Ferndale. Bat houses attract bats, which feed on mosquitoes.
She said Orion could allocate $1,000 of the remaining funds for preventing West Nile to conduct workshops where citizens could learn how to construct their own bat house, as well as having organizations construct some for township properties.
Earlier this year the board allocated $60,000 for West Nile control; to date $3,698 of that has been spent.
“A certain amount of that was directed to OHM (the township’s engineering firm) to document catch basins,” said supervisor Jerry Dywasuk. “We still haven’t gotten that bill yet.”
Dywasuk recommended sending the request to the West Nile committee so they could provide some information for the public on bat houses.
“I just don’t see us spending $1,000 on bat houses when some people in the community might not agree with it,” he said.
Treasurer James Marleau said the $1,000 price tag could “vastly be diminished” if the township were able to get some wood donated.
“By the time this goes to committee and comes back again, the summer season will be long gone,” he said.
Parks and recreation director Rock Blanchard said the subject of bat houses has come up in the township before, that there are currently 15 houses that were donated by school children — waiting to go up at the Porritt Barn in Friendship Park.
“I’m not against this proposal, but I think there’s some things we need to think about before we approve the money,” he said. “Such as who will hang them, how will they be distributed, will this take staff time.
“Some people might think they’ll get rabies…we need the information so we can educate the public,” Blanchard said.
Marleau said he didn’t believe there would be an issue of liability with having bat houses on township property.
“If we have bird houses, we don’t control the birds,” he said.
Trustee Michael Fetzer said his subdivision has put up a bat house, and that even if the township put one up this summer, they wouldn’t have bats until next year.
“They work,” he said.
Ward said that for $1,000, the township could get 50-52 large bat houses built.
“I would like to see something go on besides just using chemicals (for preventing West Nile),” she said.
Orion Township Senior Center Director Mary Lou Enneking said the senior center is having a program on bat houses in August. For more information on the program, which is open to anyone and free to the public, contact the senior center at 693-2066.