County Will Spend $100k of Contingency Funds on Catch Basin Treatments

by Dave Zornow

Rockland County, Updated June 6 — Legislators will dip into a contingency fund to pay for the county’s effort to prevent mosquito-borne diseases. The 2010-11 county budget had stripped funding for the annual program leaving the responsibility to treat catch basins to town and village governments.

“We have a short window of opportunity to prevent mosquitoes from breeding,” says Harriet Cornell, Chairwoman of the Rockland County Legislature.  “I am pleased that we have been able to work together to continue the treatment of the catch basins.”

The County Executive’s decision not to fund this program caught legislators by surprise. Since 1999, county Health Department employees have dropped briquette-shaped pellets of an insect growth regulator into catch basins throughout the county to prevent mosquito-borne diseases. A June 6, 2010 Journal News editorial provides a summary of the county’s annual cat-and-mouse game of trying to avoid paying for this program.

Rockland County’s mosquito control program includes the treatment of swampy areas, availability of mosquito dunks for residents and distribution of public educational information.

Source: Rockland County Legislature
See also: West Nile Virus, Rockland County Health Department , Has Rockland finally swatted mosquito debate? Journal News 6/6/2010