Porter County municipalities asked to cover animal control costs
Post Tribune
June 02, 2015 - 3:44 PM
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-porter-animal-ordinance-st-0603-20150602-story.html
Municipalities in Porter County will soon be paying for animal control services provided by the county.
The Porter County Board of Commissioners, meeting Tuesday at the administration building in Valparaiso, voted to create funds to deposit money collected by the county for animal control services, with the proceeds split between the county's animal shelter and animal control, which falls under the auspices of the Porter County Sheriff's Department.
Contracts for the service had not been renegotiated since 2010 and, with the exception of one municipality, the fee has not been collected since 2011, said county attorney Betty Knight.
Animal control alone lost $125,000 in revenue over the last five years from municipalities that weren't paying the fee, said Jeff Biggs, commander of the sheriff's department. Chesterton is the only community that's been paying for the service since its contract expired, he added, at $6,076 a year.
Previously, animal control was under the direction of the shelter and money collected through the fee went there. The money will now be split between the shelter and animal control, Knight said.
Portage is not included in the mix because it has its own animal control officers and takes its animal to the Humane Society shelter in Hobart.
The one-year contracts with the municipalities take effect on Aug. 1. State statute dictates that communities provide animal control services, Knight said, and most of the county's municipalities chose to pay the county instead of providing the service themselves.
The fee will bring in $90,640 a year, with half going to animal control and half going to the shelter, said Biggs, who worked up a fee schedule based on the average number of calls for service for each community between 2010 and 2014.
"That $45,000 would pay for a new truck" for animal control, something that will be needed in the coming year, he said.
He estimates annual costs for the service to be $200,000 for animal control, then doubled that to $400,000 to cover the animal shelter's costs and used that figure to calculate the municipalities' fees.
For some communities, the amount will remain the same or go down, Knight said.
For the city of Valparaiso, Biggs said, the fee will go up from $20,150 to $63,200. Valparaiso makes up 16 percent of the calls for service, so will pay that percentage of the costs. Only the unincorporated part of the county had a higher percentage, at 64 percent.
"It's not going to cover the entire operation of the shelter" or animal control, Knight said. "It's meant to help."
Post Tribune
June 02, 2015 - 3:44 PM
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-porter-animal-ordinance-st-0603-20150602-story.html
Municipalities in Porter County will soon be paying for animal control services provided by the county.
The Porter County Board of Commissioners, meeting Tuesday at the administration building in Valparaiso, voted to create funds to deposit money collected by the county for animal control services, with the proceeds split between the county's animal shelter and animal control, which falls under the auspices of the Porter County Sheriff's Department.
Contracts for the service had not been renegotiated since 2010 and, with the exception of one municipality, the fee has not been collected since 2011, said county attorney Betty Knight.
Animal control alone lost $125,000 in revenue over the last five years from municipalities that weren't paying the fee, said Jeff Biggs, commander of the sheriff's department. Chesterton is the only community that's been paying for the service since its contract expired, he added, at $6,076 a year.
Previously, animal control was under the direction of the shelter and money collected through the fee went there. The money will now be split between the shelter and animal control, Knight said.
Portage is not included in the mix because it has its own animal control officers and takes its animal to the Humane Society shelter in Hobart.
The one-year contracts with the municipalities take effect on Aug. 1. State statute dictates that communities provide animal control services, Knight said, and most of the county's municipalities chose to pay the county instead of providing the service themselves.
The fee will bring in $90,640 a year, with half going to animal control and half going to the shelter, said Biggs, who worked up a fee schedule based on the average number of calls for service for each community between 2010 and 2014.
"That $45,000 would pay for a new truck" for animal control, something that will be needed in the coming year, he said.
He estimates annual costs for the service to be $200,000 for animal control, then doubled that to $400,000 to cover the animal shelter's costs and used that figure to calculate the municipalities' fees.
For some communities, the amount will remain the same or go down, Knight said.
For the city of Valparaiso, Biggs said, the fee will go up from $20,150 to $63,200. Valparaiso makes up 16 percent of the calls for service, so will pay that percentage of the costs. Only the unincorporated part of the county had a higher percentage, at 64 percent.
"It's not going to cover the entire operation of the shelter" or animal control, Knight said. "It's meant to help."
The ordinance will have a second reading at the commissioners' next meeting.
No comments:
Post a Comment