Home

Duck, Duck, Goose
by Joe Renna

The killing of the geese is a perfect example of how the County of Union lacks capable leadership. The Freeholders of Union County have a short attention span, it only lasts from one election to the next. The situation that the County faces pertaining to the geese is nothing new and it has been raised numerous times for many years. The Freeholders dealt with the geese the same way they deal with every issue; by not dealing with it.

There are alternative solutions to controlling the geese population, but it would take capable leadership to address the situation and implement a strategy to manage it. There are natural deterrents for controlling where and how geese congregate and to reduce the rate of population growth.The County doesn't have to reinvent the wheel. The techniques have been successfully implemented in other places and are well documented.

The claim made by the Freeholders that all alternatives have been exhausted is absurd. There was never a comprehensive plan to manage the problem. The only thing that the County ever did to address the geese problem was to set up photo opportunities for the Freeholders that happen to be up for reelection in a particular year. After the election, there was never a continuation of the program.

One year, we see a photo of a Freeholder with a shovel planting high grass in Rahway Park, the next year, a Freeholder would announce that the County will use border collies to scare the geese away. Then there was the motorized toy boat that would zip around the lake and that would be the cure. These events were just that, events. They were done independent of one another and without continuity. They were not part of a larger plan. But they did quiet down the people who would complain and they did appease those who wanted to see a humane solution. But only until the election was over.

The population of geese rose steadily from year to year. This was no surprise. Now the only solution the Freeholders could think of is to kill the geese. The solution is typical - do what ever it takes to get through this election. The team in power is not stupid. They are in fact very calculated. The only problem is that they aren't using their resources to manage the County. Instead all their energy and resources are spent on getting reelected. It's a shame that much of those resources come from our tax dollars.

I figure that the decision to kill the geese was just another election time calculation. When the number of people complaining about the geese became larger than those who cared about the method of extermination, it justified the killing. It was a pure numbers game. The Freeholders hope that the majority of voters would rather see the geese gone. From the reaction of the public, I think the Freeholders miscalculated.

The public can't be blamed for what happened. We have a level of trust in our elected officials and believe that they would tell the truth. The County has been telling the people for years that they have implemented a strategy of dealing with the geese. They have pictures to prove it. Why would we believe otherwise? Now, after the fact, the County says killing is the only means possible. Should this now be believed? If this is the truth where is the plan to prevent the population from growing like it has in the past? The truth is that there is no plan. There never was.

The only thing that killing these geese did was to clear the parks for the Fourth of July Fireworks, the music festivals and kids fairs, plus any other public event that gives the incumbent candidate an audience (at taxpayers expense).

I think that the County was wrong in killing the geese. The geese are problematic but there are more intelligent ways of dealing with them. A continuous plan combining several techniques of habitat modification and scare tactics can prevail, but it would take leadership that can think past November 4th.

Reelecting the Freeholders empowers them even more to operate with immunity. Without an alternative voice on the board there is no accountability. This present Freeholder board has short changed the voters. Not only on this issue but on every issue. I hope the voters see the big picture because the Freeholders don't. Not for nothing but, I'd rather step in geese droppings than in what the Freeholders dish out.