{"id":477236,"date":"2026-02-19T05:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T05:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/477236\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T05:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T05:33:08","slug":"bay-village-mayor-invites-residents-to-coyote-forum-after-neighborhood-sightings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/477236\/","title":{"rendered":"Bay Village mayor invites residents to coyote forum after neighborhood sightings"},"content":{"rendered":"

BAY VILLAGE, Ohio — Mayor Paul Koomar is inviting Bay Village residents concerned about coyotes in residential neighborhoods to attend a public forum<\/a> Thursday (Feb. 19) hosted by Cleveland Metroparks. <\/p>\n

Wildlife ecologist Jon Cepek will answer questions about why coyotes are in neighborhoods and what to do if they are in a resident\u2019s yard. <\/p>\n

Cepek began studying coyotes in 1998. For the last 11 years, he has been monitoring them and understanding their relationships with people and pets. <\/p>\n

He will discuss what can be done to prevent or resolve problems. <\/p>\n

Koomar said he would attend the meeting, which begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Rocky River Nature Center, 24000 Valley Parkway in North Olmsted. <\/p>\n

He suggested that anyone with concerns about coyotes should also attend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know we\u2019ve had some interest in coyotes, certainly in Ward 3,\u201d Koomar said. <\/p>\n

\"CoyotesA coyote looks around for some food in the snow near the Cleveland Metroparks South Chagrin Reservation. David Petkiewicz, cleveland.com<\/p>\n

Several residents attended a Dec. 2 City Council meeting to express concerns about coyote sightings and encounters in the Longbeach Parkway and Northfield Road area immediately west of the Huntington Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks.<\/p>\n

One resident, while addressing City Council at the December meeting, said a coyote had become entangled in his Christmas lights and rolled around on the ground until it freed itself. <\/p>\n

The incident occurred about 6:45 a.m., and the resident expressed concern because children passed by his home only minutes later on their way to school.<\/p>\n

Another resident told council that she believes the coyotes are becoming more aggressive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re expanding,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re getting new dens. They have no natural predators. They\u2019re only going to increase in population. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re getting bigger. They\u2019re getting more aggressive, which they never had been before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several residents, in phone calls and emails to city officials, have expressed concerns about the safety of their children and pets.<\/p>\n

Koomar recently talked with Cepek about the residents\u2019 concerns. <\/p>\n

\u201cI found him to be very helpful,\u201d the mayor said.<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s office has sent emails to residents advising them of the public forum. <\/p>\n

Ward 3 Councilman Mike Greco said he has also emailed notices to residents who have contacted him with concerns.<\/p>\n

Read more from the West Shore Sun<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAY VILLAGE, Ohio — Mayor Paul Koomar is inviting Bay Village residents concerned about coyotes in residential neighborhoods…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-477236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}