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Lewisville council approves aerial spraying (updated)
By Heather M. Goodwin, hgoodwin@starlocalnews.com
Lewisville city council members have voted to opt-in for the Denton County aerial spraying for mosquitoes.
During a special session Monday, the Lewisville City Council voted 3 to 1 in favor of aerial spraying. Councilmen Rudy Durham, Leroy Vaughn and Neil Ferguson voted in favor and Councilman John Gorena voted against it. Councilman TJ Gilmore was not present.
"I am in support of the spraying," Durham said. "We've got to do something."
"Our only other option is to wait, and it's a cycle that will pass," Vaughan said. "I too have my doubts on the safety of it. In the years to come we might find out there are dangerous chemicals in the spraying, but as we sit here today it seems to be the most effective measure that we can do."
Ferguson said even though he has little faith in the aerial spraying solution, he voted in favor of it.
"When I took this job I knew that what I personally thought wouldn't always be what I would do," Ferguson said. "The senior citizens are in favor of spraying, and the majority of what I've heard from residents is that they're in favor of it."
Gorena said even though West Nile virus is "a very, very serious condition to be concerned with," he feels that the city shouldn't "jump overboard."
"We need to look at the long term affects. We're messing with this ecology out there, and I have to wonder what are the long-term affects? What are the effects on the next generation of people," Gorena said. "I'm just a little leery of doing this aerial spraying. I think we need to look at other avenues before we do aerial spraying. Also, if we spray Lewisville, who's to say that Flower Mound mosquitoes won't come over here?"
Several residents spoke against spraying, including Sherry Prince.
"I am requesting that we vote against spraying. There are alternative ways to doing this," Prince said. "You want control over this situation, but it is obvious that the toxic plan is not giving you control. Why not use organic methods? This situation has caused people to make decisions based on fear. People are panicking and fearful because they don't know what to do."
Lewisville resident Helen Byron said she was in favor for the aerial spraying.
"I think there comes a time when you need to take stronger action," Byron said. "People are more important than the environment."
Dean Burton, director of the Denton County Health Department, said the county has the highest attack rate in the state.
"Aerial spraying is not something we do routinely, but the reality is every day I see 4 to 5 new cases," Burton said. "The CDC tells us that this strategy is safe."
Burton said during the aerial spraying, the planes will fly at 300 feet and apply eight-tenths of an ounce of the poison. We believe it is safe, effective and available at no cost.
At its Tuesday meeting, the Highland Village City Council voted 6-1 to accept Denton County's offer to aerial spray over Highland Village to reduce the mosquito population. In addition to Lewisville and Highland Village, the following Denton County cities opted-in for spraying Aubrey, Copper Canyon, Corral City, Crossroads, Dish, Double Oak, Flower Mound, Hackberry, Haslet, Hickory Creek, Justin, Krugerville, Krum, Lake Dallas, Lakewood Village, Lincoln Park, Town of Northlake, Oak Point, Pilot Point, Ponder, Prosper, Providence Village, Roanoke, Sanger, Sandy Shores, Southlake, Trophy Club and Westlake. The following cities opted-out Argyle, Bartonville, Corinth, Denton, Fort Worth, Frisco, Hebron, Little Elm, Plano, The Colony. Carrollton, Coppell and Dallas were previously sprayed.
On Wednesday, the Denton County Medical Society sent a letter to the county stating that it is "deeply concerned about the West Nile virus outbreak in North Texas...Given this situation, protective measures including the application of insecticide both by aerial and ground spraying clearly are warranted at this time, especially in areas of highest concentration."
According to Lyle Peterson, a doctor with the Centers for Disease Control, after aerial spraying, there has been a "marked decrease in human cases compared to areas that have not been sprayed."
Petersen also said because it takes time for someone to get infected, develop symptoms and go to the doctor, get diagnosed and then report it; cases may be reported for many weeks.
"So, even if we stop wells Nile virus transmission tomorrow, you would continue to see many, many cases reported over the coming weeks and even months, possibly," Peterson said. "So, human cases are lagging indicators. So, we will not expect to find, to be able to evaluate the effect on human cases for some time. And in the short run, what we're looking for is a decrease in mosquito counts. After the spraying and that evaluation is currently being done right now. In conjunction with local, state CDC team that's in the Dallas area, and we hope to get some data on that in the upcoming days."
Spraying in Denton County was delayed Thursday due to high winds. The county rescheduled spraying for Friday and Saturday night from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.
As of Monday, there were 122 cases of West Nile virus in Denton County and three deaths.
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