Washington County Animal Shelter Requests More Money

FAYETTEVILLE — Washington County’s animal shelter requires quite a bit more money to run the facility next year, officials said.

The Quorum Court on Oct. 15 will review a 2014 budget proposal seeking $188,759 more than this year’s $457,041 budget. The 41 percent hike includes more personnel, pet food and medicine for the facility that opened in September 2012.

“I think anytime you have such an increase you have to really look at it,” said Justice of the Peace Candy Clark, Finance and Budget Committee chairwoman. “It’s heavy on personnel and we already funded two of the new positions.”

Justices of the peace last month approved $140,275 of the $188,759 increase by adding a veterinarian and a vet technician.

Angela Ledgerwood, shelter director, said she’s seeking $50,000 for medicine and drugs for a variety of procedures, including vaccinations, for animals coming into the shelter. This year’s budget showed a $750 budget for medicine and drugs.

“We are also planning to bring the spay and neuter program into the shelter, and clearly we’ll have to have more money to operate that here,” Ledgerwood said.

County officials plan to end a $10 voucher program for low-income residents to spay and neuter their cats and dogs through select veterinarian offices.

Instead, the county will offer the low-cost surgical procedures at the shelter. The shelter will use the $40,000 allotment for the program, said Clark.

The shelter took in 600 cats and 974 dogs from September 2012 to August, according to shelter reports. During that time, 555 cats and 859 dogs have been adopted, fostered, transported to different states, reclaimed or euthanized.

The county spent $12,965 through mid-September this year on pet food. Ledgerwood seeks $16,000 for 2014.

Ledgerwood said she plans to continue asking for one more person to be added to her staff to alleviate scheduling issues and overworked staff.

Dan Short, chief of staff to County Judge Marilyn Edwards, asked Quorum Court members for three positions because of high overtime. Justices approved two of the three last month, choosing not to approve a kennel supervisor position.

“We can get by 12 to 15 hours a day, seven days a week,” she said. “What happens when we have a sick kennel supervisor? We have a kennel supervisor with two weeks of vacation and comp time.”

A lengthy vacation or time off by one employee causes strain on the remaining staff, she said.

Justice of the Peace Tom Lundstrum said he voted against the $2.2 million cost to build the shelter. Lundstrum voted for the two new positions last month but is unsure about the third position.

“If we’re going to start something, and you spent $2.2 million of taxpayer money, at least stand up, staff it and run it,” Lundstrum said. “At this point in time, I probably won’t support it. I supported it first time around, but I don’t think she’ll get the votes to get them this next time.”

Other departments, such as the Information Services Department, seek new positions as well, he said. Lundstrum often tells his peers he’s against growing government by adding employees.

The next budget session is Oct. 10 and committee members plan to review 2014 budget requests from the assessor, collector, treasurer, county clerk and circuit clerk.