The Marion County Board missed its deadline to have a new animal control facility in operation by January 1st. However, Board Chair Steve Whritenour believes its only days away.
Whritenour says the Centralia City Attorney is currently reviewing the memorandum of understanding that would allow Marion County to utilize the Centralia Animal Control Facility until the $180,000 sale is finalized. In addition to allowing Marion County to use the facility, Centralia is looking to split the land, giving the county the three acres that would still have room for expansion of the dog pound while keeping eight other acres for the city’s future use.
Whritenour says until the agreement is in place, the two facilities that have allowed Marion County to house their animals temporarily until now will do so for several more days. They are the Barking Lot and the Doggy Den, both in Centralia. Whritenour says the program has done well with finding homes for some of the strays and is currently holding only six dogs.
Meanwhile, Writenhour says the county board will be asked at Monday’s special board meeting to hire staff for the new facility. He reports that an administrator for the animal control program is set to be hired, along with two or three part-time employees. The current Animal Control warden, Ken Ferguson, will be maintained on a full-time basis to handle the pickup of stray and dangerous dogs.
