An anonymous caller to The Greeneville Sun on Friday morning reported that someone had killed at least four vultures and had hung the dead birds in trees off Sunset Street near Fire Station No. 1.

The caller was correct.

It turns out that the Greeneville Police Department, working with a permit and some advice obtained from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, had suspended four dead vultures in trees off Sunset Street.

The police had killed the vultures in late December or early January and had, with the help of the Greeneville Public Works Department, hung them in trees in an effort to discourage the birds from roosting there.

GPD Chief Terry Cannon said his department had received complaints over at least the last three years from residents of Sunset Street, Cedar Street and the Greeneville Housing Authority about vultures posing health problems by vomiting on houses, cars, and playground equipment in the area.

Cannon said some residents of Cedar Street complained that vultures were roosting on the porch railings of their homes and that they were afraid to go outside as a result.

He also said vultures that roosted on playground equipment off Simpson Street made a playground there unusable by area children because the birds vomited remains of dead animals they had eaten all over the equipment.

"We've tried everything to scare them away for the last three years," Chief Cannon said of the vultures.

After artificial noise-makers of various types and blank gunshots failed to dislodge the estimated more than 150 vultures that were roosting in the Sunset and Cedar Street areas, Chief Cannon said, the GPD applied for a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service late last year to kill some of the vultures.

"We received a permit to kill up to 30 black vultures and 10 turkey vultures," Cannon said.

He noted that a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employee recommended that some of the dead birds be placed in trees in the area in an effort to dissuade vultures from roosting there.

"It worked," Cannon said. "They may come back, but they're not there now."

Chief Cannon also said the GPD has applied for an extension for the permit that will allow officers to kill more vultures if they return to the Sunset Street and Cedar Street areas.