The Morgan County Commissioners say they are just letting their department head do her job and not getting into the middle of the Village of South Jacksonville’s complaints about their animal control contract.
Commissioner Chair Mike Wankel says that he was a bit disappointed to hear of the complaints raised by the South Jacksonville trustee’s last week, but he says it wasn’t a correct statement to say that they pawned off any of their duties to the village – they are simply letting Animal Control Director Lisa Ladely do what she’s been hired to do: “We’ve had no communication with their board. I know that they have talked to the director of Animal Control, and she has, as always in the past, if she expects expenses to go up, which naturally they have and any pet owner has seen that as pet food costs have increased over 100% in one year, at time she sees the need to increase fees for that. I believe, the increase, which they failed to mention, is 25 cents per person.”
Wankel says with the math, the increase in the contract amounts to $825 compared to the previous contract, which he believes is reasonable considering the circumstances. As far as the hours of operation complaint of being Monday through Friday 8:30-4:30, Wankel says it’s how the office is set up: “That is their hours during daily operations. They will respond after hours. We have one person on call after hours, and they would respond to an emergency situation such as a dog bite or a vicious animal that needs to be controlled – something of that nature. They are not going to get out of bed for a cat in a tree or someone’s dog running loose in a neighborhood. That’s something that can be handled the next day. That’s the policies and procedures they have in place.”
As far as not responding to wild animal calls, Wankel says that Animal Control will respond to wild animals out of attics and out of homes for people if they are in danger or if there is property damage occurring. He says that residents can also rent live traps to capture a wild animal traversing on their property.
Wankel says he hopes a discussion can be had with the village administration for the contract to continue, but he says they do have options: “We look forward to having any further discussions with South Jacksonville. When you think about those fees that they are complaining about, it seems very fair that she hasn’t increased the fees enormously. She’s just merely trying to take care of a budget. The village does have the option to not being involved in Animal Control services. We would only respond to, I will call it emergency-type situations with them, where we won’t respond to come get a cat or a raccoon – we would simply respond on an emergency situation where Animal Control would only be responsible for something like a dog bite. So they could opt out of those other services if they wish.”
Wankel says that he and the other commissioners do not wish to micromanage the Animal Control Department, and believe Ladely is doing a fine job. He says that the conversations between the Village and Ladely should have been handled internally. The Village of South Jacksonville Board is expected to vote and have further discussions on the Animal Control contract at their next scheduled meeting in April.