Advisory board created for local animal shelter

By Ralph Pokorny

Nevada Daily Mail

Gary Herstein said members of a new board set up by the animal shelter would work in an "advisory" manor during Wednesday's organizational meeting.

Herstein, public safety director, said the board should advise the shelter on what to do, within the constraints of the available money.

He said the board is set up to make recommendations to the city administration and city council and to make quarterly reports to the council.

The board was set up by the city council in response to the closure of the animal shelter operated by the Vernon County Humane Society, in January 2006, and its subsequent reopening in July under the control of the city of Nevada.

Bonnie Stafford, Joy Brown, Gail Post, Lucile Walker and June O'Connor, got their first taste of the way city boards function during a brief orientation from city clerk Julie Lewis, who recommended that they watch an 18-minute video they were given about the way boards and committees function when they hold hearings, as well as to read the copy of the Missouri Sunshine Law they were given.

Herstein said the purpose of the shelter is to take animals off the streets and to enforce the city's ordinance about animals running at large.

"We are probably the only city funded shelter that keeps animals 15 days," he told the board.

Most others do not keep the animals that long. Fort Scott holds animals for three days. Herstein said Missouri statute requires that animals must be kept at least five days before they are destroyed.

Questions asked included what the budget for the shelter is and if they could get more help there so it can be open more hours.

Herstein said right now they have a part-time employee who works 28 hours per week taking care of the shelter. She works a split shift Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday and a few hours Sunday to clean the shelter and feed the pets. On Wednesday, the animal control officer has to take time from answering calls to pick up animals and other complaints to take care of the shelter.

He told the board it takes one person about four hours to clean the shelter and feed and water the animals in the morning and another hour to come back later in the day to feed and water them again.

The budget for the operation of the shelter was approved in January and there probably is no way to get money for another part-time employee until the 2008 budget is approved, he told the board.

"Can we get some volunteers to help keep the shelter open more hours?" Bonnie Stafford asked.

Herstein told her that they could not have volunteers working at the shelter without a city employee present.

The first issue Herstein told the board that the city needed advice on is a proposal from Hills Science Diet pet foods to provide pet food for the animals at the shelter for about the cost of what the city is paying locally for feed. The main requirement is that they have a display in the shelter and provide each person adopting an animal a five-pound bag of Hills pet food.

He told the board he was not pushing this, but called it an opportunity to save some money.

He said they need to look at the information given on the agreement and that they can discuss it at the next meeting.

Any contract to do this must be approved by the city council, Herstein told the board.

Another issue that we will probably bring to you for recommendations is a concern from the Federal Emergency Management Agency about what we would do with loose animals if a tornado or other disaster were to hit here. He said they will need to develop a policy to deal with this situation.

The board's next meeting is tentatively scheduled for 5 p.m., April 26, for a tour of the animal shelter.