My clock says 11 o'clock.

Anybody else?

Yeah.

Hi, Alex.

Hi, Mark.

All right, sweetheart.

Look at Dapper.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Everybody, in the interest of time, I'm going to start us on time.

I am Common Councillor Hanna Aronreich of the Parks Committee.

And I am joined today.

Sorry, I'm just trying to find my notifications here to shut this off.

I am joined today by Councillor Hudson and Councillor Nave.

Commissioner Bird and Eric Ennis.

Oh, that's Chief Development Office.

Chief Development Office.

There's lots of different titles there.

Um as with the previous parks committee meeting, um, I am going to leave some time for public engagement and comment.

So please just wait till you're called to the podium if you wish to speak.

Um and I know we have a presentation today, but I did want to start with a question, if that's all right.

Any other protocol that I got in no?

Okay.

All right, fabulous.

And if another counselor comes, then another counselor comes, we're gonna have a party.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes.

Um my question is about Lyme disease rates in the city of Syracuse.

Um the reason for the deer and tick management program is to protect human health and to safeguard our public spaces.

And I understand that we are on an upswing on Lyme disease, and I would like to know what our current numbers are and what the impacts of those are well, good morning.

Uh first and thank you, uh Counselor, for the question.

So um on the topic to answer the question immediately on the data.

There is better data at county on a countywide level that is harder to track at the city level, partially just because of the fact that the department of health rests within the county.

But a couple things that there are some metrics that I can share, and some of it also is around tick testing that really is a good um indicator of some of these things.

So the first thing is that the actual number of cases um on a given annual basis, that is somewhere between 300 and 400 within Onadaga County, but that is respectively, we are seeing a an increase in that.

Um the better data that we have relative to tick and and some indicators of pathogens and other tick-borne illnesses like Lyme is that from 2024 to 2025, um, SUNY Upstate, which SUNY Upstate does have a testing center, that is uh it really is largely all of upstate New York that's receiving those tests.

Um the anticipation is by the end of 2026, more than 4,000 total t ticks will be submitted for that testing.

But the number of overall submissions of ticks that wanted to be tested to find out more information jumped 145% from 2024 to 2025.

Um in addition to that, the number of tick encounters that were reported uh jumped 70 percent as well as part of um SUNY upstate's testing.

And in addition to that, of the tests that were conducted as part of this facility that's led by the ummunology department and and that's who operates the testing facility at Sony Upstate, 35% of those tested, of those ticks that were tested contained at least one pathogen of tick-borne illnesses, uh, including Lyme disease.

And so uh what we can do, counselor, is is continue to compile more information uh and and really attempt to get more granular on a city level and city basis.

But what we are seeing is certainly there is a rise in Ontadoga County.

Some of the things that we've identified is that the changes of the winter, winter coming sooner from this past season, and then the fact that there was additional, there's the amount of snow cover really almost created a protection for the amount of the tick population.

And so we saw more prevalence of just tick incidents, but also just the fact that then people humans had more interaction and dogs and others.

So I just want to pause for a minute and recognize that Council Monto has joined us.

Thank you very much.

I also don't bite, so you could sit closer if you wanted.

All right.

Thank you.

Continue on Eric.

Yes, thank you.

So uh thank you for that update.

That is terrifying.

I before you go into the presentation.

Let me ask this question do we have any generalized location of where we're getting the most amount of ticks from?

So it's it is a good question, Counselor.

And I think what we can try to do is have a more geographic basis.

We I know SUNY Upstate has the ability to identify the locations where the ticks are coming from themselves, including counties, because of the fact that's such a large statewide pool.