Portage OKs contract with new Porter animal shelter
Chicago Tribune
May 23, 2017
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-portage-animal-shelter-st-0524-20170523-story.html
The city officially jumped on board with the new Porter County Animal Control shelter when the Board of Works signed a contract with the shelter the same day county officials cut the ribbon on the new facility.
After this month, Portage animal control will take its animals to the new county site, instead of taking them to the Humane Society of Hobart. The city will pay the county $3,000 a month to receive the animals through August 2018, said Clerk-Treasurer Chris Stidham.
"This is a long time coming," Stidham said. "It's an amazing new facility, and it'll be great for our animals."
"At least now, we can keep our money in the county," added Board of Works Member Ron Necco.
Portage, the largest municipality in Porter County, had been the most significant holdout on the new county shelter, instead paying $2,300 to $2,400 a month to the Hobart shelter.
The monthly payments to the county site may be more, but it could change when county officials revisit their contracts with municipalities next year, Stidham said. If Portage is taking fewer animals, the city should end up paying less per month, he said.
The city also has been on the hook for Good Samaritan citizens who pick up stray animals and deliver them to the Humane Society, which then bills the city for Portage residents who took animals there, said Ted Uzelac, assistant police chief and a former City Council member.
Officials have been trying to put a leash on the behavior of pet owners as much as on the animals themselves for about the past year, Uzelac said. That has meant getting "proactive" on issuing citations to pet owners who do not keep adequate control of their animals, he said.
Portage has one full-time animal control officer and two part-time officers, keeping police officers free to patrol city streets, Uzelac said.
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