By Glenn Rolfe

MILLSBORO — Deer and the town’s public works system apparently don’t mix.

Millsboro leaders are exploring hunting options aimed at thinning the deer population on the town-owned White Farm property to address damage to rapid infiltration basins, equipment that percolates water pumped from the in-town treatment plant for various uses, including spray irrigation.

“I understand that (deer) are actually sliding down the RIB system and then going to the pond and going to the other side. A deer doesn’t know RIBs from plastic,” said Councilman John Thoroughgood. “There is a lot of deer out there. The population is just getting huge. Basically, what I am after is to get the council to look at thinning out the deer population.”

That request at Monday’s Town Council meeting, however, led to some questions: Would hunting be firearms or archery? Would a hunting club be authorized under strict town management to target the herd?

So after lengthy discussion, council members tabled the issue in lieu of obtaining information on liability, insurance, management and legal aspects from town Solicitor Mary Schrider-Fox.

“I think you might need to think about this and talk about developing a policy that fills in some of the blanks,” she said.

Any approved, authorized hunting on the land, off Del. 20, would likely fall under the discretion of town Public Works Director Kenny Niblett and Police Chief Brian Calloway.

Mr. Niblett said he checked with his insurance agent, with whom he had a policy for hunter’s insurance before.

“They informed me that most people now are not getting hunter’s insurance per se, but what they are doing with leased land or private land (where) people hunt is they (employ) a hold harmless agreement,” protecting property owners from being sued when someone suffers damage, bodily injury or financial loss on that land, said Mr. Niblett.

Ms. Schrider-Fox said she is against hunting on the property.

“As the lawyer of the group, I have to say I don’t want any hunting of your property simply because … it is a dangerous activity,” she said. “But if you’re going to think about doing it, I’d like to paper it to death with a hold harmless agreement and insurance and have some sort of a written policy in place about who does what and when.

“My concern is that a hold harmless agreement, that is well and good,” she continued. “But if something terrible happens, and the person who signs it can’t pay a claim, … I would prefer that there be some sort of insurance policy in place that any hunter would have to have because I think it is inherently dangerous and subjected to liability to have this activity — period.”

Matt Hall, the town’s finance director, said he checked Monday morning with Millsboro’s insurance carrier. “The underwriter is not a fan of hunting on that property,” he said.

To even be “remotely” considered, Mr. Hall said insurance requirements would mandate at least $1 million of coverage per occurrence and $2 million of general aggregate, plus other waivers and agreements. A hunting club would be the preference of the insurance company, Mr. Hall added.

Town Manager Sheldon Hudson also noted that council would likely need to amend Chapter 105 of the town code, which states there is to be no hunting within Millsboro’s borders.

“My concern with that is, I don’t know that we want the town taking a liability of doing the policing and doing the screening,” said Mr. Hudson. “I would prefer to see like a hunting club. So basically, if we want to do this, have a third party that has their own insurance that does the screening for us.”

If hunting were to be granted for a club, Mr. Niblett said the town would need to know all details, such as how many members would be hunting at one time and when.

“It has got to be manageable for the safety aspect, as well as the population control of the deer. Everybody has to be made aware of our assets, as well as the safety aspect with the other hunters,” he said.

The hunting area in question encompasses about 150 acres behind the new water tower, off Del. 20. The property also has a shooting range utilized by the Millsboro Police Department.
“But there are certain times during the daytime, early daytime, that we don’t want anybody back there because that’s when I have staff back there measuring wells and such,” said Mr. Niblett.

He added that he would check with the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to see if there is a provision to allow for hunting in the event of equipment and infrastructure damage, similar to that which is allowed for crop damage caused by deer.

“They have crop damage (permits). I don’t know if they would address the facilities’ (damage),” said Mr. Niblett. “But you do have a large expenditure there to protect.”

He said that, if allowed, his preference would be hunting via archery, which is permitted in some circumstances in town limits under code, which “shall also not prohibit any person or organization from receiving permission from the Chief of Police of the Town of Millsboro to conduct archery activities at an archery range approved by the Chief of Police.”

“Actually, I wasn’t a big fan of firearms per se there anyway. I would rather regulate more to archery-type hunting versus firearms,” said Mr. Niblett. “It allows archery events when approved by the chief of police.”

The White Farm property was hunted several years ago, but deer hunting there was eventually curtailed.

“I remember the original agreement and why we canceled it,” said Chief Calloway. “I remember that somebody was illegally hunting back there. At the end of the day, word gets out that you can (hunt). It’s difficult, I think, for us to mitigate who is and who is not (allowed to hunt). Most of the hunting is probably going to be done outside of normal business hours. It is certainly important that we know about it because we will get phone calls. And if we make contact with that person, (then) they have something to prove that they were authorized to be there. That would be my request: that we know who it is, that people are properly authorized and they carry something with them … (like a) permit.”

Chief Calloway also noted that officers recently freed a deer entangled in one the fences at the shooting range. “I also understand the challenges that are there. There is certainly a lot of deer back there,” he said.