FAIRHOPE, Alabama—Members of a Canada goose family pictured this spring at Fairhope’s beach-front park, in the accompanying photo, may have been among some reportedly 40 geese rounded up and removed from the park two weeks ago by the USDA’s Wildlife Services division. 

The federal removal, done under the auspices of protecting public health from water pollution at the beach, was apparently authorized by Mayor Tim Kant and General Administrator James Gillespie, according to Gregg Mims, city administrator, in the Aug. 10 issue of The Fairhope Courier.

The updated online version of the story, http://www.gulfcoastnewstoday.com/area_news/article_8650f46a-e308-11e1-83ec-0019bb2963f4.html?_dc=367981631075.9634, published Friday afternoon, has drawn comments from outside Alabama and privately to Courier editor Mike Odom who wrote the article.

Lori DuBose, of WABF 1220 AM radio in Fairhope, will interview Odom at 8:20 a.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, Aug. 14, about The Courier article and local geese removal issue.  

Odom is also on the agenda of today’s City Council public participation session (Monday, Aug. 13) at 5 p.m., which precedes the regular council meeting at 6 p.m., to ask some questions of city leaders about the issue.

Bruce Carnahan, one of the Fairhope residents quoted in the Aug. 10 story, told The Courier earlier today that he would be in a meeting with Mayor Kant that started at 2 p.m. to discuss the geese removal issue. He said he would ask Kant if he planned to attend the 5 p.m. public participation meeting and encourage him to do so, so that the mayor could address the public about the issue.

The mayor did not respond to a phone call last Wednesday seeking comment for the article that ran in the paper and online Friday, Aug. 10.

Editor’s Note: For an op-ed on the issue, written for The Courier by an investigative journalist who has researched and reported on the geese removal controversy in a number of communities throughout the nation, see tomorrow’s Fairhope Courier (Tuesday, Aug. 14) at Page 4A.