Centralia City Manager Kory Smith says ‘it’s a little tough’ for the city to take care of its own dog problems due to the city’s animal pound usually being at capacity population.
He notes the current contract with Marion County to house dogs from the unincorporated areas of the county is typically taking up more than half of the 22 spaces available. On a recent day, 15 of the dogs being held were from outside the city of Centralia.
While Smith says he has no plans to recommend the contract to hold dogs from unincorporated areas of Marion County end, he does have issues to sign additional contracts with the smaller communities of the county because of space issues.
Smith notes the city needs to be able to take care of their own dogs as a priority since it is a city facility.
The Marion County Community Relations Committee is scheduled to meet at 5:30 Tuesday night to discuss the situation. The meeting was spurred by a recent incident where the Marion County Animal Control Officer did not respond to a dog bite case in Patoka. Committee Chair Bill Henson said at the last county board meeting it is the county animal control officer’s responsibility to respond to such incidents. He wants to further spell out the duties of the animal control officer as well as look at the current arrangement with the Centralia Animal Pound.
The meeting will be held in the basement of the Law Enforcement Center.
