File #: Res 0563-2004    Version: * Name: DOHMH to declare the Bronx a rat-infested disaster area.
Type: Resolution Status: Filed
Committee: Committee on Health
On agenda: 9/9/2004
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: Resolution calling upon the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) to declare the Bronx a rat-infested disaster area and to implement an ongoing rat extermination program based on DOHMH findings that the “rat problem in the Bronx is worse than anywhere else in the city,” and for the appropriate committee of the City Council to hold hearings on the results of the Mayor’s 2003 special rat initiative.
Sponsors: Helen D. Foster, Annabel Palma, Bill Perkins, Philip Reed, Charles Barron, Joel Rivera, James Sanders, Jr.
Council Member Sponsors: 7

Res. No. 563

 

Resolution calling upon the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) to declare the Bronx a rat-infested disaster area and to implement an ongoing rat extermination program based on DOHMH findings that the “rat problem in the Bronx is worse than anywhere else in the city,” and for the appropriate committee of the City Council to hold hearings on the results of the Mayor’s 2003 special rat initiative.

 

By Council Members Foster, Palma, Perkins, Reed, Barron, Rivera and Sanders

 

                          Whereas, The Daily News reported on August 15, 2004, that Dr. Edgar Butts, Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau of Veterinary and Pest Control Services, stated, “The rat problem in the Bronx is worse than anywhere else in the city,” and that “it’s four times worse than in Manhattan and eight times worse than in Brooklyn”; and

                          Whereas, According to DOHMH records obtained by the Daily News, rat infestation complaints have risen by 8% since the summer of 2003 and by 40% since the summer of 2002; and

                          Whereas, The City began a special rat initiative in 2003 by increasing the $12 million rat control budget by $1 million and by targeting the City’s most rat-infested areas of Bushwick in Brooklyn, Concourse Village, Melrose and Highbridge in the South Bronx and East Harlem in Manhattan; and

                          Whereas, The City’s 2003 rat initiative included increased inspections and exterminations and the distribution of thousands of rat-proof trash cans; and

                          Whereas, Inspections increased by 31% to almost 84,000 and exterminations increased by 12% in FY ’04 from the previous year, according to DOHMH records obtained by the Daily News; and

                          Whereas, The Daily News article noted that Assistant Commissioner Butts said the City will now focus more of its rat extermination efforts in the Bronx where vacant buildings, lots filled with overgrown weeds and unsealed trash containers harbor rats; now, therefore, be it

                          Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls upon the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) to declare the Bronx a rat-infested disaster area and to implement an ongoing rat extermination program based on DOHMH findings that the “rat problem in the Bronx is worse than anywhere else in the city,” and for the appropriate committee of the Council to hold hearings on the results of the Mayor’s 2003 special rat initiative.

 

DP

LS#1553

8/31/04