After the shootings of five coyotes near the Wildhorse golf course, the City of Davis have cut ties with the U.S Department of Agriculture. The City Council voted unanimously to terminate the contract with the USDA Wildlife Services. Numerous citizen complaints by residents led to the shootings. The city felt since they were writing the checks, they should have been notified before the Wildlife Services took it upon themselves to exterminate these coyotes. The USDA felt the complaints by citizens around Wildhorse justified their actions.. The coyotes were demonstrating aggressive behavior. This could have been handled differently, but ultimately the safety of the residents was first priority.
The massive water surface project has been tentatively placed on the ballot for a vote on 5 March 2013. The Water Advisory Committee will come up with its recommendations for the project and the City Council will decide what and how the ballot is presented to the residents. The decision to delay the vote was a wise move on three fronts. This gives the committee more time to cut some of the cost of this massive project ( hopefully) and secondly, it’s not competing against the school board proposed parcel tax on the November ballot. The delay also gives groups that oppose this project more time to get their point of view out to the voters.
One of the many attractions that gravitate folks to Davis is our world-famous Farmers Market. The U.S News Travel recently voted the local market in the top 10 of all Farmers Markets nationwide..Our market has been a mainstay in Davis for many years. It’s a family oriented market, especially during the Summer months. Central Park is a must see on Wednesday evening and Saturday mornings. Davis Farmers Market garnered the fifth spot in the nationwide poll, the top four were bigger city markets.
Like almost every other community throughout the country, Davis has had huge increase in homes sold for the first half of 2012. That was largely due to the weekly drop in interest rates, now standing at 3.56% and the inevitable realization that property values are close to bottoming out. Many homes priced correctly have had multiple offers. A number of serious buyers are sitting on the fence waiting for the right home to hit the market. Through the first six months of 2012, we had 242 properties that sold compared to 198 homes that sold over each of the last two years. The average days on the market were 67 days, the same number as 2011. The average sales price was $450,516 this year compared to $476,153 for the first half of 2011. That’s about a 5% drop from last years number. We do expect the sales price average to be more in line with 2011, by the end of the year. Please visit my website www.JohnnyBrooksHomes.com for helpful tips on buying or selling a home.
You are correct, it could have been handled differently. There were not “numerous complaints” and the coyotes were not acting aggressively. The puppies were about 2 to 3 months old and could not catch a mouse, much less attack humans. There were two adults and there was no reported attack on a human or pet.
They killed both adults and four out the five pups, leaving one to fend for himself although he is much too young to do so. Now residents get to watch this pup quite possibly starve to death–not something anyone should have to watch.
Yes, it was handled very, very badly.
Unfortunately as communities continue to expand and build subdivisions and businesses into the outskirts, this type of episode might repeat itself.
The city has ended its contract with the usws and is implementing a coexistence plan so that no more davis coyotes will be killed. Hopefully we’ll establish a good model program so other communities can follow suit.