The Marion County Board was told Tuesday night the City of Centralia will raise the cost of accepting dogs at their animal pound from the unincorporated area by nearly double starting November 1st.
Community Relations Committee member Tracy Murray said their ‘big problem’ with animal control is ‘getting bigger’. Centralia currently is charging the county $3,200 a month. It will go up to $6,200 next month.
Murray says the committee has called a meeting for 5:30 next Tuesday night in the basement meeting room of the Law Enforcement Center.
“We’ll try to get the municipalities here. Hopefully we’ll get some ideas from them and discuss with them. I doubt they’re going to want to help pay for anything,” Murray said. “We’re going to have to do something and it’s going to cost money… I’m not a very good mathematician, but it might be cheaper to build a small facility and man it than to pay Centralia the crazy amount that they’re wanting.”
Murray notes that at this point the smaller communities have no place to take their dogs since they don’t have a contract with Centralia.
Members of the Marion County Board have already met with the Fayette County Board which had some interest in a possible intergovernmental agreement. Fayette County has their own facility and shares the cost with the cities and villages. Marion County will meet with the Clinton County Board next Monday. Clinton County has also expressed an interest in a regional animal control facility.
County Board Chair Debbie Smith was not happy when animal control officer Ken Ferguson reported Centralia was turning away some of their dogs even with the contract in place.
