Hot dog!
City agrees to take ownership of animal shelter
By JIMMY GALVAN Managing Editor

It has been years in the process but Jasper's city council finally gave approval and support for a county animal shelter.

The motion was made by Councilwoman Dianne Pace and seconded by Tommy Adams and was unanimously approved much to the delight of a packed house during the Monday, Sept. 10 meeting.

"We have supported this twice and I think it's unconscionable for us to renege at this point," Pace said. "My motion is for the city to put in its money and take ownership of the shelter."

The motion was in direct opposition to the city's staff recommendation on the issue. City Manager Alan Grindstaff said he supported having a dog pound but that the Jasper Lakes Area Humane Society own and operate the facility. The city and the county would share in the funding of the operation of the facility.

Joe Lanier, JLAHS shelter planning, spoke to the council on behalf of the group and asked for their support during the meeting.

"Our charitable and volunteer group was delighted that at long last, the county is finally agreeable to fund up to one half of the operational expense for a much needed animal shelter," Lanier said. "Then to our dismay, we found that the city was no longer willing to assume ownership of same. We are now starting to feel that we bought a turkey farm, someone would cancel Thanksgiving."

As has been in the past, Lanier pointed out that the facility would be built on unused city property on HiTruett Road using a trust fund of approximately $43,000 available to the city for construction purposes, plus $4,000 from JLAHS's organization for shelter equipment.

Lanier pointed out that surrounding cities of Livingston, Liberty, Bridge City, Silsbee and Vidor operated city-owned dog pounds. Lesser size cities such as Woodville, Hemphill, Kirbyville and Newton also operate dog pounds.

"The county has never been open to their ownership of any shelter," Lanier said. "They have felt they have no legal obligations except to dispatch the Sheriff on vicious, biting dog calls. Even if they were open to ownership, they would want it to be located in the middle of the county, which would preclude the 50 percent participation by the city of Jasper."

Lanier said that according

to Jasper County Judge Mark Allen, the money allocated for the animal shelter is in a contingency fund pending the city of Jasper's decision on taking over ownership of the facility.

While the city's staff recommended that JLAHS take ownership, Lanier pointed to five different reasons why the group could not do so.

Lanier said JLAHS does not have any property or money to build a building.

"The trust fund is technically not available to an individual or private organization," Lanier said. "The advice that we had from all other humane societies we spoke with was that under no circumstance should we attempt shelter ownership and operation with an all volunteer organization.

"The city of Jasper has a real opportunity here to serve the city and area citizens with a public safety and humane society and facility that is truly needed in our community," Lanier said. "We have always counted on the city of Jasper stepping up to the plate on this matter, once the county of Jasper was willing to assume a reasonable and fair support level.

"As that is now the case, we hope you take the ball and run with it, which will truly benefit all of our citizens as well as all the silent and helpless animals needing shelter," Lanier said.

Grindstaff recommended that before the city take ownership of the facility, they should seek an interlocal agreement with the county for a guarantee of continual funding for the facility in the future.

"It would guarantee that they would budget 50 percent of the operation of that facility not just for this upcoming fiscal year," Grindstaff said. "If the city owns it, and the county's money is not there, the city would be left with paying the full costs of the operation of this shelter."

Lanier said that the solution would be simple if the county pulled out of its part of the funding for the project in the following years.

"Just lock the doors and turn out the light," Lanier said. "You still have the facility; just go back to doing what you are doing there. This is a win-win situation for the city of Jasper."