Deer Trail clerk returning checks for drone-hunting licenses

Deer Trail can't keep up with demand for licenses to hunt unmanned aerial vehicles — even though the town hasn't yet passed an ordinance allowing them to be issued.

Town clerk Kim Oldfield stopped counting two weeks ago, when the tally of personal checks made out to the town of Deer Trail hit 983 and $19,006. The checks came from all over the U.S.

Oldfield said she returned as many of the checks as she could before the work became overwhelming. The town began pondering licenses to hunt drones — with a $100 bounty attached — in July.

"I'm still getting the letters," she said. "I'm just throwing them in a big pile."

Town residents will vote on the ordinance in a special election Oct. 8.

But town resident Phil Steel, who proposed the ordinance, has already started selling novelty versions of the licenses through his own online company. On Tuesday, he said he'd sold 100 fake licenses and donated a portion of his $2,500 take to the town during the monthly board meeting, Oldfield said.

The board had a chance to approve the license ordinance last month but deadlocked 3-3. The board then referred the measure to voters with the intention of donating money made from the sale of the licenses to the local community center.

The licenses, which Steel has said are primarily symbolic, would allow holders to shoot down drones flying less than 1,000 feet above private property.

"There is a lot of money to be made on it, and it was going to go to the community center, and now I have to return a lot of checks," Oldfield said.

Of the town's roughly 550 residents, Oldfield said 38 people have signed an unofficial petition opposing the measure. Eight of them appeared at the board meeting on Tuesday to fight the special election.

"I quit counting (checks) because obviously the people don't want this," Oldfield said.