BY LARRY DUPEE
Special to the Times
LAKE BUTLER — Union County Solid Waste Director Kim Hayes approached the Union County Board of County Commissioners with a proposed new fee schedule that would reflect changes in the expense of running the county operation.
Hayes, who also oversees Union County Animal Control, located next to the Road Department/Solid Waste building at the West Gate of the RMC, behind O. J. Phillips Park, said the cost of animal food has increased dramatically, as had the cost for the mandatory rabies shots the animals received in some cases. She said it was necessary to raise the fees so that the animals could continue to receive the level of care which the facility had been providing.
In the information given to the board, each fee was listed with both the current amount being charged and the proposed increased fees.
Two types of boarding fees are charged at the facility. The first is a daily fee which reflects the cost of keeping an animal after it has been picked up. The fee had been set at $5 per day but was to increase to $8 per day. Rabies boarding, the keeping of an animal that is suspected of being rabid, will also increase from $7 a day to $10. Rabies vaccination, which must be done when an animal is reclaimed or adopted, shows an increase from $10 to $24.
When an animal is picked up and the owner come to Animal Control to retrieve it, they are charged a reclaim fee that increases each time the animal come in. This fee reflects the cost of the actual call response for a problem animal and the actual capture of a problem or stray animal that the county has been called to deal with. It is, in a way, a fine to the owner for not maintaining the animal is a correct manner.
First offense has been charged at $30 per day and will increase to $45. Second offense will increase from $35 to $55 and third offense (a situation that Hayes said seldom occurred) will increase from $45 to $75.
The fee to adopt an animal at the facility has been $30 but will increase to $50 under the new fee schedule. The surrender fee, charged when an owner no longer want, or can keep their pet, is increasing from $30 to $50.
The animal control is a small and does not receive any funding other than the operating funds from the county budget and the fees it collects.
In January, the facility brought in 12 animals, all dogs (as they do not handle cats). Ten of these were collected by the animal control officer as strays or “at large” animals and two were surrendered or relinquished by their owners. All twelve of these dogs were either transferred to another facility, out of county, to be available for adoption in a busier shelter or dealt with in another way that did not require that they be euthanized. The department makes every attempt to avoid euthanizing healthy, adoptable animals and succeeded in doing so in January 2022, despite the fact that there were no adoptions. The departments income for the month was only $70.
The board briefly discussed the matter with Hayes, then voted unanimously to approve her request for an increased fee schedule.
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