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Glenwood flap: pigeon droppings, dropping pigeons

Jim Files

Pigeon droppings or pigeons that have dropped dead.

What’s worse?

A 7-year-old girl from Carbondale has stepped in on the side of the birds. On the other side is the Glenwood Springs Hot Springs Pool, which is trying to keep its customers and their cars from being mottled by dirty bird doo-doo.



In the middle is the Colorado Department of Transportation.

Coral Eva Froning – presumably with her mother’s aid – sent off letters to various local newspapers Wednesday complaining about pigeons being trapped and killed beneath the Grand Avenue Bridge.




In looping and underlined printing, she wrote:

“I am a 7-year-old girl and I have lived in Carbondale all my life. I go to the Hot Springs Pool a lot.

“I have noticed that under the bridge near the pool chicken wire has been put up there and it’s trapping the pigeons under the beams. That’s where their nests have always been, but now once they get in they can’t get out!

“Every time I look up at least three are dead or dying. These birds should not suffer!

“I want this to be stopped. Can anyone help?”

An examination of the north end of the bridge just above the new underpass constructed by the city of Glenwood Springs indeed shows that spaces between the structure’s large beams have been closed off by chicken wire.

And, trapped behind the wire, are the feathered remains of three dead birds that appear to be pigeons.

The pigeons weren’t supposed to be trapped and die up there, according to Del French of CDOT. Now working in the Grand Junction office, French was the supervisor in Glenwood Springs three years ago.

“I gave concurrence to the Hot Springs Lodge and Pool to put a fine netting there to keep the pigeons out,” French said Thursday. “They’re pretty dirty birds. They were depositing on people’s heads and cars. The pool thought someone might get hurt.”

The parking lot for the pool is directly underneath the bridge.

“We’re not trapping pigeons,” Kjell Mitchell of the pool said. “We’re just trying to keep the pigeons out of there. We thought it was a public health hazard.”

Just how this squabble will wind up, how this tale will end, is still up in the air.

It will probably take more than a little girl’s letter.

But, French said, “If it’s actually trapping pigeons, we may need to re-evaluate things.”