Bird droppings will cost city $298,344

Submitted photos

Pigeon poop.

Those words might provoke giggles in the five-year-old set, but city of Ashland officials are not laughing.

After trying to keep birds away from a city storage building with fake owls and snakes, a noise-making device that upset neighbors but only briefly startled birds, spikes and chicken wire, officials reluctantly agreed it’s time to take a different approach.

The building off North Mountain Avenue and behind The Grove has a roof, but no walls to keep out the pigeons, blackbirds and other species that insist on making their homes there.

Last week, the Ashland City Council unanimously approved spending $298,344 to add walls to the building.

Councilor Russ Silbiger said he hates to spend that amount of money to deal with birds, but photos of stored equipment coated in droppings showed him just how severe the problem is.

“These pictures illustrate the problem,” he said. “As we know, bird droppings notwithstanding, bird flu is a problem that’s more and more prevalent.”

Mayor John Morrison said when the city tried using chicken wire to fence out the birds, they managed to squeeze in but then many could not get back out.

“You’ve got decomposing carcasses up there. It’s a significant health problem and has been for some time — and we really need to fix it,” he said.

The city has paid an outside company to pressure wash the inside of the building every few months, said Electric Department Director Dick Wanderscheid, who noted that the situation has been a problem for years.

The city of Ashland originally solicited bids to enclose the building in March 2006, but did not designate design parameters for the project. Only one bid came in, and that was for $798,769, Wanderscheid said.

Read the rest of this story in Wednesday's Tidings (online after 1:10 pm.)