[SOC] Fwd: Polk Country going to the rats?

[Rob Matherly]

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Subject: [scaniowa] Polk Country going to the rats?
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2002 23:48:41 -0500
To: Scan Iowa Group <scaniowa@yahoogroups.com>

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Polk County officials have decided to surrender the
 courthouse basement to rats. County officials said Tuesday they plan to
 abandon the basement within two weeks, possibly in favor of rented space
 across the street. Court records and more than a dozen employees will have
 to be transferred.

Rats have been spotted in the basement for decades, but the rodent population
 has grown and the rats have become braver in recent months, partly due to
 spring cleaning, said Bruce Greiner, director of the county's general
 services department.

"Once we cleaned up all that stuff down there, we kind of took away their
 places to hide," Greiner said.

There have been dozens of rat sightings in the past 90 days, including one
 that invaded a judge's restroom vanity on the second floor and another seen
 leaping from a desk drawer on the first floor.

Court employees have been warned to keep food in glass or metal containers
 and to clap their hands when walking down dark hallways.

"Just because of the sheer nature of the issue, we think that we're better
 off to move people out of the basement," County Manager Teree
 Caldwell-Johnson said. "I don't think that we would ever move people back
 into that basement."

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