CITY HALL — Rats fleeing buildings being torn down for construction should be exterminated beforehand, according to a West Side alderman.
Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) proposed an ordinance at Wednesday's City Council meeting that would make rat control part of the permit process for city construction.
Under Ervin's proposal, any building permit involving excavation would have to show that the property was inspected for rodents. If rodents are found, "abatement measures" must be taken 14 days ahead of the final filing for an application.
"When you disturb the land, in many cases you disturb some of these nests," Ervin said Thursday. "We just want to make sure it's inspected and treated so that this doesn't send these rats moving in a bunch of different directions."
The ordinance sets strict fines of $100 to $500 for either omitting the inspection or lying about the presence of rats, rising to $1,000 after the first offense.
Ervin was the lone sponsor of the proposed ordinance, but West Side colleague Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. (27th) has previously drawn attention to the issue, saying that building construction causes the rats to come out in the open, and "the rats are partying down the street every day."
"I think it should be mandatory that contractors doing construction should bait for rats, period," Burnett said Thursday. "Everywhere they have construction going on, the rats come up from under the ground and they just devastate the people in the community."
"We just want to deal with this problem before it spreads," Ervin said. "They go from one place to another, but if you deal with it in the habitat effectively then it stops them from spreading to other places."
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