The City of Lima has decided to employ five four-legged friends to take care of an issue at Schoonover Lake. Goats are being used to try and take out the overgrown vegetation in the lake.
"It’s a pilot program and something that we’re researching as a way to — there’s plenty of spaces out here that folks can’t get to that the goats can and take care of," Ric Stolly said, director of Lima Parks and Recreation Department.
"When they called me I said well, yeah we can try that out," Kevin Cox said, owner of the goats. "It’s just a test and eventually I think they will use them because they use them all over the country. It’s just another farm practice."
The trial run began on Thursday and there’s no timetable being set. The city wants to see how these goats do in the small lagoon on the south side of the lake.
"We hope that as this project continues that in a couple weeks we’ll have a lot better feel for the progress that’s being made and how else it’ll affect the rest of Schoonover lake," Stolly said.
"Them goats will eat poison ivy, all kind of noxious weeds," said Cox, a Perry Township Trustee. "They very seldom ever eat nothing that will harm them. They’re that intelligent."
For $15 a day per goat, Cox will have them roaming about from morning to evening. He hopes people enjoy watching them on their walks through the park but asks you don’t bother them. Their health is his priority.
"They’re just like human beings, if they eat too much of anything good, it bothers them," Cox said. "It’ll do the same to them. So I got to watch that."
The City of Lima was wrapping up a $2 million renovation and restoration project at Schoonover Lake. It began back in July 2019. They need the “OK" from ODNR to begin to fill the lake again.
