
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 12, 1990                   TAG: 9007120033
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: GOLD HILL, ORE.                                LENGTH: Medium

MAYOR GOES TO BATS FOR POLICE DEPOSITS

There's gold in Gold Hill, but it's brown and gritty and comes from bats. It's guano and it's helping Mayor Jay DeYoe fund the police force.

The manure is collected, cleaned and sold as fertilizer.

"This is the pure stuff, right here," DeYoe said proudly, letting the fine brown grit run through his fingers.

A city worker came upon the guano and told DeYoe, who won't reveal the location of the mother lode.

A man of vision - he won first place in the 1981 Gold Dust Days Parade by dragging a pile of junk through town with his truck - DeYoe quickly saw the chance to turn a nuisance into dollars for police.

The town of 965 people can afford to pay only one police officer, Chief Katie Holmboe. The six reserve officers are volunteers.

DeYoe got labels printed with a bat silhouette and the warning, "For external use only," and began selling guano: 8 ounces for $5, 1 ounce for $1.

"That's expensive," he admitted, "but it does have a catchy label on it. It's something the local people can send to their friends in California, or Nebraska or New York. There's a good chance their friend in New York who has everything doesn't have a bag of Gold Hill bat guano.

"I bought a $5 bag myself last week and put it on the flowers in front of my business. It really does work good."

In two months, the venture has raised about $100 to help outfit Holmboe's reserve police officers.

DeYoe took visitors to the guano site last week, but blindfolded them first.

He screens the guano for bones and other impurities and zaps it in a microwave before bagging it.

"We do that because we found a worm crawling in a bag," DeYoe said during an interview at his City Hall desk.

The venture has its critics.

A card addressed to Mayor Guano arrived recently.

"I feel we should seal up that damn bat cave and start attempting to earn the glorious town a decent image," it read. "Signed: a citizen that doesn't burn flags and is sincere about the image of Gold Hill."

"Needless to say, he didn't order any bat guano," DeYoe said.

by CNB