Lincoln City Council
City hears about struggles of the Logan County Animal Control

 

[May 28, 2021] 

At the Tuesday, May 25th meeting of the Lincoln City Council, aldermen learned that the Logan County Animal Control is having staffing issues that are going to impact the services offered throughout the county.

Mayor Tracy Welch explained that he has heard from Animal Control that there will be no coverage from that department over Memorial Day weekend because there is no staff to be called upon. In addition, the staffing issues are making it extremely difficult for the department to deal with the calls they receive.

It was explained that conversations with the committee chair of animal control and subsequent meetings of that committee resulted in Animal Control determining that at this time, they are not in a position to renew the contract with the city. Welch added that Lincoln is not the only community affected; none of the contracts with outlying communities will be renewed.

Welch said he was invited to a committee meeting where he expressed concerns for the lack of animal control. He said that there were issues within the city and there was a need for them to be addressed, so he would hate to see animal control go away altogether in Lincoln.

He asked if there was a workable compromise.

From that meeting, it was determined that the current agreement would have to delete calls for barking dogs. The committee also said that while it isn’t going to renew an annual contract, it could go into a month to month contract with a reduced fee of $42,000 annualized or $3,500 per month. This would be a $6,000 reduction over the current agreement. Under the month to month agreement, the contract would renew automatically at the first of each month as long as Animal Control feels it can offer the services to the city. If conditions at Animal Control should get worse, then the renewal may not happen at some point in the future.

Welch said that because there had not been sufficient time to bring the issue before the council, the committee will offer an alternative to the current contract until it expires. From now until the first of July, all calls answered within the city of Lincoln will be charged to the city at a rate of $200 per call. Welch said with the deletion of barking dogs as a callable offense, the $200 per call rate could cost the city less than the annual contract.

Wanda Lee Rohlfs asked if the barking dogs were the only issue within the city ordinances that would not be addressed or were there others. Welch said it was just the barking dogs. He went on to explain that Animal Control had expressed the staffing issues are due to the rate of pay offered, and that the county is looking at that. In addition, the staff that is on duty end up being on duty 24/7 because they go to their regular work day, but have to remain on call all the time, and can be called out multiple times during what should be their off time.

Steve Parrott asked if there was any documentation to show how many calls are answered in Lincoln monthly. He said that the $3,500 mentioned earlier divided by $200 would be 17.5 calls. So if animal control is making 17 or fewer calls it would be cheaper to go to the per call rate.

Welch said there is something else to consider. With the contract, the Animal Control ultimately has blanket authority to act within the city limits. On the case per case basis it does not. Welch said therefore what happens is when a call comes to Animal Control the staff then have to call the mayor and get authorization to proceed.

Kevin Bateman said that he had reached out to 911 dispatch and learned that over a 12-month period 219 calls had been sent to Animal Control from dispatch. Bateman said that did not include calls that go directly to Animal Control. Rick Hoefle then said that would equal more than 18 calls per month, so the $3,500 per month would be economical.

Welch also shared that speaking with the Animal Control chairman, while the situation is precarious right now, the county fully intends to get everything ironed out and go back to a long term contract as soon as possible.

Rohlfs noted that there is a car that drives throughout the community with several dogs inside, all barking. She said it has been on the street where she lives and it has been reported to have been around the IGA on Pulaski Street as well, making it clear that there is a problem with barking dogs in Lincoln.

Welch said that perhaps some of the issues could be addressed by the city police department. LPD Chief Paul Adams said that if the car is parked and the dogs left inside, that is a law enforcement issue and LPD should be called and can act on that circumstance.

Welch said that he also felt that if there were an extenuating circumstance that Animal Control could be called for assistance. He expressed that Animal Control and the county both want to work everything out so that services can be restored, but they need time.

The next meeting of the Lincoln City Council will be Monday, June 7th. At that time there may be items on the agenda that include approving the $200 per call fee in the month of June and a month to month contract at $3,500 per month until further notice.

[Nila Smith]