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County renews shelter contract with Humane Society

The Taylor County Humane Society (TCHS) will keep the contract to run the county’s animal shelter for the coming year.

Members of the Taylor County Law Enforcement and Emergency Government committee approved staying with TCHS even though their rate was above a verbal proposal given by a competing organization hoping to get the contract.

Under the previous contract, the county paid TCHS $3,900 per month to run the county’s animal shelter. The county uses the money generated from dog licenses and some tax levy dollars to pay for the service that keeps stray animals for a period of time as set by county ordinance.

Shanna Kestler of Paws of Hope located at W6707 Hwy 64 in Medford presented a verbal proposal of $3,200 per month. She highlighted the services offered by Paws of Hope, noting they do not charge a surrender fee for animals and are run entirely by volunteers and families who foster animals. While they do not have a building currently to use as a shelter, they are looking to get one and to become a licensed shelter.

Members of the TCHS board reviewed a written contract proposal that includes the humane society picking up the cost of veterinarian bills and reducing the base rate of $3,900 by 2% to match the decrease asked of all other departments in the county last year. The new contract would be for $3,822 per month.

“We have a well-established relationship with TCHS,” said committee member Ray Soper. He noted that TCHS has an existing facility and said that he could not in good conscience see switching to something that he said really doesn’t exist right now.

“I can’t see any reason to switch,” said committee member Myron Brooks agreeing with Soper. He said he felt the county was getting excellent service. Committee members voted unanimously to approve the contract with TCHS.

9-1-1 upgrade

A glitch involving the interface between the county’s existing squad radios and the new 9-1-1 equipment is causing headaches.

According to sheriff Larry Woebbeking, the issue is with the equipment that records incoming calls and it is not recording anything coming in from the squad and personal radios. Motorola had assured the county it would work with their existing radios, but because of the proprietary connections on them has been unable to make that happen.

The county has withheld final payment of about $68,000 for the 9-1-1 upgrade and chief deputy Corey Dassow, said the company will be crediting the county for the $60,000 piece of equipment that is not working. The radio traffic is currently being recorded with the county’s old system.

Dassow said the department was referred to a vendor which deals with those radios with the hope of finding an adequate upgrade. However, this brings up the issue of the age of the radios themselves.

Woebbeking noted the current squad radios are at end of life in regard to technology and that model is no longer being made. This makes getting parts and service for them a challenge. He estimated the radios to be about seven to eight years old.

He gave a rough guess that it would cost the county about $48,000 to replace all the radios and was hoping that there would be money left from the 9-1-1 project to go toward radio replacement.

Committee chairman Lester Lewis said he thought Woebbeking’s estimate on cost was low.

In other business, committee members:

_ Discussed the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on the county’s emergency management operations. Emergency management director Colleen Handrick also reported that the state grant funding for her position had been renewed following the appeal. She had been quarantined at the time when the annual grant renewal was due and did not have access to all the necessary documents when it was submitted.

_ Discussed a potential tabletop disaster preparedness exercise with Nestle and the Medford Fire Department. Handrick said they are looking to hold something in April.

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