Audit, upgrades on horizon for county animal shelter
Commission also advances new shelter project, funding updates
An outside company may soon look at the Anderson County Animal Shelter to find areas it can improve.
The County Commission voted on May 19 to have the Animal Shelter face an operational audit.
Commissioner Stephen Verran made the motion, and Commissioner Ebony Capshaw seconded. It passed unanimously among those present, although commissioners Tyler Mayes, Phil Yager, Robert Smallridge and Robert McKamey were absent.
Mayor Terry Frank said the county had not chosen a contractor to make the audit. It will go to the Budget Committee next.
“Just having a third party come in and look at the operations rather than the people who are already in the know is often enlightening,” she said, adding they might notice “low-hanging fruit.”
Build America,
Buy America
Meanwhile, the county is working toward a new shelter building, and revising its language making sure it follows federal law to receive U.S. Department of Agriculture funding.
Then-President Joseph Biden signed the Build America, Buy America Act in 2021.
In agreement with this act the county is asking for the future contractor to, if possible, use U.S.-made steel, manufactured products and construction materials.
The commission at the same meeting voted to update contract language to reflect this requirement. Commissioner Tracy Wandell cast the sole “nay” vote out of the members present.
Frank explained that the county’s architect had met with the USDA, and the requirement was something the county had needed to add to the architect’s contract.
She told The Courier News the county is getting ready to go to bid for construction, although she could not give a precise date.
The USDA still needs to counter-sign a document before that can happen. She said that could take from a week to a month.
“We’re close,” she said.
Other shelter
improvments
The Operations Committee, which includes members of the commission, took several votes at its May 12 meeting that did not go to the full commission for votes.
It voted to forward a request for funding to expand parking for shelter volunteers next to the adjacent recycling building, and possibly for a new entrance, new fencing, a new walking trail or area on which the animals can walk, and Americans with Disabilities Act compliance.
That request will go the Budget Committee next month.
Frank told The Courier News that the fencing and trail or field would allow for an area to walk the animals that’s away from the recycling center.
It would keep the animals away from the recycling center’s hazards and also keep them from interfering with the recycling center’s business.
“You have skid steers, you have metals, you have paints, you have all of this material stacked up around,” she said. “It’s not a safe and secure site. And so the animal shelter is really a tenant in the middle of a recycling center, which is not ideal.”
The Operations Committee voted to have Frank research animal shelter fees and microchip costs.
It also voted to have the mayor research software costs for updating the shelter’s website and Facebook page as another measure for Budget Committee to take up.
Frank said she would prefer the shelter use one software program for all of its operations like animal control, intake and posting, rather than separate ones for these different functions.
