Mill levy bump could help grasshopper control

Though the Crook County Weed & Pest District budget is not yet finalized for the year ahead, it's looking likely that it will include some extra that could be used to assist landowners who are dealing with grasshopper problems this summer.

Alycia Conroy-Davis, District Supervisor, presented the most recent draft of the district's annual general budget to the Crook County Commissioners on Monday.

She explained that the grasshoppers are so bad in some areas that the Crook County Weed & Pest Board has decided to cut down funding for less-used programs in order to create a temporary 10% cost share program for grasshoppers, which would begin with the next budget year on July 1.

The program would then continue to be offered on a first-come-first-serve basis, "until the money runs out," she said.

"We only have $8000, so it's not going to be that much, but anything helps," she said. Of the decision to move funding around to provide the program, she said, "We really want to put [that money] down on the ground and help ranchers out in any way, shape or form."

However, Conroy-Davis shared this figure before hearing some good news from County Clerk Melissa Jones.

Having budgeted for the district's two mills on early projections that they would come in at around $290,000 each, she was pleasantly surprised to hear that the actual amount is expected to be closer to $327,000.

Though acknowledging that she was speaking before having informed the Weed & Pest Board of this news, Conroy-Davis said she expects this additional funding will almost certainly be funneled into herbicides and insecticides.

If the grasshopper problem continues to worsen as June continues, she speculated that the decision may be made to funnel it all into that control program.

Commissioner Kelly Dennis, however, felt that the weeds are also particularly bad this year and may turn out to need more attention.

"In my life, I have never seen weeds do what they've done this year," he said. "They just keep coming."

Conroy-Davis concurred, also noting that $10,000 has been moved from the herbicide budget line in the Special Management Budget into bio control for leafy spurge bugs.

The Weed & Pest board will finalize their budget at their upcoming meeting for the commission's approval in July.