Dallas Considers Rat Control Proposal Amid Building Boom

There's a dirty secret scurrying around the well-kept North Dallas neighborhood that Barbara Mayeron calls home – rats.

"We've had a problem since we've moved in," said Ms. Mayeron, a Preston Hollow-area resident for four years. "There's a stigma that you don't want to talk about. ... I think because they've built these big expensive new homes, they don't want to have that associated with a rat problem."

But Ms. Mayeron isn't keeping quiet about the rodent problem, which she blames on recent demolitions of older homes in her area. In the last few years, she said, 13 houses within a block from her home have been torn down and rebuilt.

Neighbors have told her that when a bulldozer hits a house, "they see rats go flying out the attic," she said. "They jump out."

"In my neighborhood, North Dallas, there's a lot of homes being demolished. I requested we do an ordinance that would hold the building owner accountable if there were rodents."

Ms. Mayeron's initial complaint to the city in 2006 is yielding some action.

City officials are considering a proposal that would call for the inspection and treatment of demolition sites for rodents as a routine part of the demolition process.

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Source: www.dallasnews.com