News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Dekalb County Animal Shelter will go before the county commission to ask for more assistance next week.
Assistant Director Emmaly Bennett said that they are still providing services to all of Dekalb County, but that the city of Smithville covers the cost of employees and building upkeep.
“We’re still in the process of trying to get support from the county,” Bennett said. “67 percent of our animals come from the county and not the city. And as of today, we have not gotten any financial support from the county itself.”
Bennett said as of now, she is the only paid employee at the animal shelter. She said that they operate mostly with volunteer support. Bennett plans on asking the county for a full-time or part-time employee to expand animal control services to the county. Currently, the city covers all costs of animal control inside the city limits.
“They also provide our animal control vehicle,” Bennett said. “They pay for maintenance for it, and gas, and anything that has to do with our animal control truck, and anything that has to do with animal control in the city limits of Smithville.”
The former Director Megan Moore previously said that the Smithville Board of Alderman limited its animal control services last October in a work session with the Dekalb Animal Coalition.
Bennett said that they hope to clear up the situation so that they can get more funding and a green light to hire more employees. She said they want to expand the shelter’s efficiency, as the waitlist for intake is growing rapidly with less means to accommodate it.
“I am severely understaffed so I’m doing the best I can with the resources that I have,” Bennett said. “That waitlist is getting longer, but that is because we want to maintain that low-kill policy, and that is what we always want to keep it that way.”
Bennett said that they’re still providing services to all of the county, but the shelter is currently in the process of settling their situation with the city and the Dekalb Animal Coalition.
