and more Front Royal rings in the season - Warren County Report

Page 16 • Warren County Report • Early December, 01 Read all issues in their entirety FREE on www.WarrenCountyReport.com
Public safety
attract bears, the councilman seems
to favor sponsoring continued public
complaining and ongoing oblivion
to these well-publicized preventive
measures. As for trap-and-relocate
programs suggested at one point,
state game officials have explained
that due to large bear population
statewide there is no trap and release
program, only a trap and destroy option.
Short-term memory loss?
Regarding the county’s large deer
population increasing intrusions
into town neighborhoods, last year
a deer-culling program was initiated
with council approval. However,
rather than set up a hunting free-forall
that could jeopardize the safety of
all town residents, their children and
pets, the approved program, which
as we recall Sayre voted to implement,
is run under strict supervision
of the Virginia Department of Game
& Inland Fisheries with operational
oversight by the Suburban Whitetail
Management Program of Northern
Virginia.
As people involved with the program
since its inception in the commonwealth
in 1997 told the Front
Royal Town Council during a Sept.
19, 011 presentation, the program
does not enable public hunting or the
use of firearms within town limits.
Rather, it initiates a strictly supervised
bow hunting program manned
by archery club members, locally
the Massanutten Archery Club, authorized
to participate. And that
program must first gain the permission
of site-specific and surrounding
property owners to be implemented
in any neighborhood, even more remote
and rural ones.
Revisionist History?
On Monday, Dec. 3 at 6:53 p.m.
we e-mailed a query asking Sayre to
elaborate on the attitude reflected in
his televised remarks. His reply, emailed
about 33 hours later at 4: 4
a.m. Dec. 5, forwarded us a link to
a transcript of the TV 3 video interview
with a note he had elaborated
in a comment posted to that link. In
that posted comment Sayre says, “The
TV3 reporter only quoted me on a
very small part of my interview with
her. As I explained to Hattie Cheek in
the November 13 interview, there are
serious consequences to illegal hunting
in the town limits of Front Royal.
The three deputies paid a just price
for their wrong actions.
“I also explained to Hattie that I
proposed an urban deer archery program
within the town limits of Front
Royal. The archery hunter must be a
member of the organization Suburban
Whitetail of Northern Virginia
which is the town’s designated agent
with Game & Inland Fisheries. They
are required to go through strict
safety training and marksmanship.
“While helping stem the deer
population in our town these measures
help insure the safety of our
citizens. Although the urban deer archery
program was initially met with
strong resistance, it has now been
embraced.”
Timing is everything
Sayre’s was one of two comments
posted in response to the video interview
and transcript. The first posted
by Emma Thompson (does the great
British actress keep up with Front
Royal politics?!!?), asks, “Really? Isn’t
that man an elected official for the
Town of Front Royal???”
At 8:50 a.m. on Dec. 5 when we
“Really? Isn’t that man an elected official for the Town of Front Royal???” – comment on video
link posted by Emma Thompson
viewed the link forwarded to us by
Sayre, Thompson’s comment was
listed as being posted “ 1 days ago”,
which would have been Nov. 14, the
day after Sayre’s interview initially
appeared.
Sayre’s comment was listed as appearing
“1 hours ago” indicating it
had been posted at some point between
8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Dec. 4, a lit-
tle over a day after we sent our e-mail
inquiry to him.
rogerb@warrencountyreport.com