DNREC is hoping for some extra cash from the state’s coffers following last June’s record rainfall and the subsequent boom in the mosquito population.
Secretary Collin O’Mara asked Joint Finance Committee members Wednesday for $75,000 to better control the pests.
That money would pay for three or four more aerial trips, which spray insecticides to kill adults and larvae alike over widespread areas of land.
O’Mara also hinted at creating a mosquito control contingency fund, saying it’s necessary for outlier years when population levels grow exponentially.
“You want to capitalize it once and then you’re hopefully not tapping into it but every three or four years," said O'Mara. "We have a couple different ideas. There’s a good model with salt [storing] and snow removal, so there’s a model there that we’re just trying to figure out the economics of.”
Nothing surrounding the fund has been finalized.
DNREC’s total proposed budget totaled $37.5 million, a 2.8 percent increase over fiscal year 2014.
