How did goose cross street? Ask mayor

Spokane Mayor Mary Verner took on a new duty after Monday’s City Council meeting: animal control officer.

On the way to their cars, Verner and City Administrator Ted Danek spotted a Canada goose wandering into traffic on Spokane Falls Boulevard.

The two then spent a half hour or longer keeping the bird from leaving the City Hall parking lot. Verner pulled a towel from her car and held it in front of the goose, which occasionally tried to eat the towel when it wasn’t trying to walk around.

“I just created a human blockade,” Verner explained. “Thanks to Ted, we had two of us so we were able to corral the goose.”

For a while they covered the goose with a cardboard box. That only slowed the goose, so Verner and Danek changed tactics and began herding it along the sidewalk to Riverfront Park.

Danek called Assistant Police Chief Jim Nicks for assistance soon after discovering the wayward goose. (He said he didn’t think it was important enough to call 911.) He added that he was unsure if Nicks called an agency with authority over wildlife, but a police officer eventually responded. “Apparently more than one person complained about it,” Danek said.

The officer pulled up just in time to observe the city’s top two officials herding the goose across Post Street. (They were unsuccessful using the crosswalk, so Danek halted traffic while Verner continued her quest to get the goose to the river.)

“I just happened to be in the right place at the right time,” Verner explained, after a Riverfront Park visitor assumed herding duties. “I hope she finds some food and makes it OK. I hope she decides not to run out in the street again.”

The goose was last seen in Riverfront Park, waddling toward the river.