Park View, D.C.

It is hoped that the alleys in yellow can be targeted in one or two rat abatement visits

Rats, and the need to keep them in check, is an issue that comes up from time to time. The current effort to do a comprehensive baiting effort in northern Park View is not the first, nor will it be the last. It is also a problem common to the majority of the city.

In order to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the Department of Health’s Rodent and Vector Control Division when they visit the community to bait the alley’s, the Park View UNC — with John Hanly leading the effort — is taking the proactive approach of getting signed petitions in place granting the DoH permission to enter onto private property if they see rat burrows.

As you can see from the accompanying map, the alleys in yellow are the target alleys. The areas in green indicate blocks where volunteers have stepped up take the lead in gathering signatures.

The deadline for the collection of signatures is the next UNC meeting on July 7th. If you haven’t been approached and want to grant permission — or, if you want to volunteer to collect signatures — feel free to contact Hanly at the following email address: johnhanly (at) mac (dot) com

Hanly’s message to the Park View UNC listserv included the following message:

It was made clear in the last survey of the neighborhood that Rats are one of the major problems we have. The UNC is working with the city on a UNC wide Rat abatement effort. This will be part education and part action. For the action part we are coordinating with the city to have inspectors check all the alleys in a short space of time which we hope will be more effective than them just coming out to check one house at a time.

In order for this to be really effective the city would like access to as many back yards as possible to check for problems and fix them. Permission to access your back yard is given by signing the petition. This is where you come in. We need two things

1. People to help gather the signatures from your neighbors
2. People who’s backyards back onto an alley to sign the petition

We have 12 alleys to work on so really need people to help make this possible.

This entry was posted on June 23, 2010 at 7:01 am and is filed under alleys, Community Involvement, Department of Health. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: alleys, Community Involvement, Park View, rats