YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — A group of people held a meeting on the West Side and determined to stop the killing of deer in Mill Creek MetroParks on Tuesday.

The group talked about the possibility of a lawsuit and even of getting rid of the commissioners on the MetroParks Board.

Within walking distance of the park — at the Assumption Social Center — about 60 people, including city council members and Mahoning County Commissioners, met for an update on how to stop the killing of deer to control the population.

“This is just a pompous, arrogant attempt to take away from the park what technically is the people’s,” said Boardman resident Chuck Johnson.

Johnson led the meeting, questioning the pictures used by Mill Creek MetroParks to determine an overpopulation of deer. Johnson, a former commercial pilot — called them contaminated.

“When you see those pictures where they have, like, five deer, and those deer are the same signatures as trees and stuff like that — you know the temperatures are the same. That’s coming from the exhaust of the airplane,” Johnson said.

He said the group submitted requests Monday to the metropark and Ohio Department of Natural Resources for additional information on the process of the deer count. Members are giving the agencies 30 days to respond.

“We’re kind of setting up for what we refer to as a ‘taxpayer lawsuit,’ which really doesn’t cost that much money after we’ve done all the research that we’ve done,” Johnson said.

He also talked about dissolving the current park board through a ballot initiative in Mahoning County. Getting the issue on the ballot would require 25% of the votes cast in the last presidential election, which was 93,000. Johnson estimates the group would need 25,000 signatures.

“Even if we don’t reach the 25,000 limit, if we get enough people circulating petitions and stuff like that, I think they would take this movement a little more seriously than they have,” Johnson said.