By BRIAN HEMMINGER
City editor
Citing local animal safety, the city of Upper Sandusky recently approved the creation of a duck crossing on East Wyandot Avenue near Duck Pond Park in Upper Sandusky.
The yellow-striped duck crossing, complete with a traffic light, will be placed at Duck Pond Park, which will allow ducks to safely cross the road. Additional “duck crossing” signs will be posted 500 feet on each side of the crossing to alert local drivers.
“We at the parks department love the city’s ducks,” Parks Director Keith Niederkohr said. “Their safety is one of the city’s top priorities.”
Upper Sandusky Mayor Kyle McColly agreed, stating he wished the city could do more for its ducks.
“Originally, we had the idea of building a duck overpass,” McColly said. “But that was scrapped pretty early due to the expense. We are always working to ensure we’re good stewards of the taxpayers’ money.”
McColly said other ideas that were scrapped included a duck tunnel and a dedicated duck taxi service, but by instead keeping things simple, the city was able to have the project fully-funded through an outside investor.
The Fowl Order of Louisiana has agreed to pay for the duck crossing in its entirety.
“It won’t cost our taxpayers a single bill, pun intended,” McColly said.
While city workers and police officers were unavailable to ensure traffic stops for the ducks to cross the road, local Scoutmaster Ron Wilch said Boy Scout Troop Nos. 776 and 777 could make themselves available to ensure ducks cross the road safely.
“I was thinking we could incentivize our scouts with a new merit badge for assisting local wildlife,” Wilch said. “We’re already helping old ladies cross the road. Why not expand our services? Our scouts are always eager to help the burgeoning waterfowl community.”
The scout solution isn’t perfect for duck safety, as scouts would only be available outside of school hours. This will leave ducks to their own devices from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. each weekday during the school year.
Niederkohr said he’s hard at work on an additional safety measure. After attending a recent poultry conference in Lancaster County, he believes he has the skills to train the ducks.
Using trails of bread crumbs and duck treats as a form of positive behavior reinforcement, not only does Niederkohr believe he can train the ducks to stay within the yellow duck-crossing lines on East Wyandot Avenue, he also could teach them how to press the button to turn on the new traffic light to stop traffic beforehand.
“What it really comes down to, is as long as you have some bread, these ducks will do whatever you ask them to do,” Niederkohr said. “This isn’t my first rodeo with ducks. I was a three-time county champion at the fair. Starting this week, I’ll begin a vigorous training program with our local ducks. They’ll practically be at my beck and call when I’m done with them.”
The duck crossing is expected by be completed before the end of the month.
“The last thing we want is to lose any of our city’s precious ducks,” Niederkohr said. “Think about it. If these ducks aren’t trained properly and drivers aren’t paying attention, we could have a tragic collision on East Wyandot Avenue. If we lost our ducks, we’d have to rename it from Duck Pond Park to just Pond Park and that’s not acceptable. And would our city residents really want to live on Pond Road instead of Duck Pond Road? I don’t think so.”
If the duck crossing is successful, McColly and Niederkohr said there could potentially be a phase two of the project, which would involve the creation of an exclusive “duck lane” that would allow ducks to freely walk from Duck Pond Park to the pond at Harrison Smith Park or to the Upper Sandusky reservoir.
“Our ducks deserve nothing but the best,” McColly said.
The paved lane would be painted completely yellow and would only be allowed to be used by ducks. Bikes, pedestrians, dogs and even other types of birds are not allowed to use the duck lane.
“Use of the duck lane will be strictly enforced by the Upper Sandusky Police Department,” USPD Chief Jared Lucas said. “Unless you’ve got webbed feet and say ‘quack quack,’ we don’t want you using that lane. Give the ducks their space — no funny business or fowl play.”
Anyone caught using the duck lane would be subject to a maximum $401 fine.
“WIth that fine, we want people to understand just how seriously we take the safety of our ducks here In Upper Sandusky,” McColly said. “Ducks have rights too.”
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