“How many acres do you have on your land?” Alderwoman Laurie Foster asked her colleague Mark Fitzsimmons in response to a request from someone to hunt Fitzsimmon’s land using a crossbow on the north side of Stanley and within city limits.

“Five,” Fitzsimmons answered. And there’s probably 38 behind it.” Foster’s objection to the hunting request wasn’t her first (she raised a similar objection to another request last year), but without more support by those on the council, Foster’s concerns weren’t sufficient to overturn the ruling: request approved.

Prior to that, however, there was some brief décor.

“I would like to request 6 c, to put it separate and discuss it further,” Foster said of a request to approve hunting on parcel 22905-2511-030000000, located between 9th and 10th Avenues in an undeveloped tract of land with a streambed through it. After a motion by Kent Barby seconded by Kevin Hendrickson to approve the other consent items, it was into a hunting discussion, specifically crossbow hunting.

“Do we want to discuss C right now,” Stanley Mayor Al Haas asked. Foster spoke up.

“My concern is that there’s a lot of residents. Crossbow, and compound bows, and hunting—how many acres do you have?” she asked Fitzsimmons.

“There’s approximately five that I own and then there’s probably 38 behind it,” Fitzsimmons answered. A calculation of the area in question at the county GIS mapping website shows approximately 56.573 acres of open space between Kennedy and 10th Avenues as measured up to the eastern city limits. The stated area includes undeveloped land on individual residential plots to take in the total amount of developmentfree potential hunting space in the neighborhood, as nearly as possible. “I think there’s a lot of residential in that, and I think with crossbows, if they miss, somebody’s going to end up eventually getting hurt,” Foster said. “I’ve deer hunted in my past and all that, but there’s more people potential. Somebody’s going to end up getting hurt,” Foster said. “I believe that we’ve approved this in the past,” Barby said.

“And I’ve denied it in the past too,” Foster said.

“So I’m going to make a motion to approve consent item c, pending any further discussion,” Barby said. “Seconded,” Hendrickson offered his consent. Mayor Haas spoke up.

“Motion made and seconded. All in favor?”

“Aye,” the response came.

“All opposed?” Haas asked.

“Opposed,” Foster said. And the motion passed.