Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- Wasilla city residents who call to complain about a neighbor's barking dog could be greeted by a Wasilla police officer answering the call, after the City Council on Monday agreed to switch animal-care providers for at least the next three years.

Click to enlarge

Bob Haskell

Story tools

Comments (0)

E-mail a friend

Print

Share on Facebook

Digg this

Seed Newsvine

Send link via AIM

Follow on Twitter

Font size : A | A | A

The City Council agreed to a $105,000-per-year contract for emergency animal pick-ups and shelter services with Mat-Su Borough Animal Care and Regulation starting July 1. Officers will respond for animal emergencies such as an animal in traffic or pets at a fire scene, Borough Animal Care Chief Bob Haskell said. Those animals, with others picked up in the city of Wasilla, will be housed at the borough shelter.

The decision ends a six-year contract with the city of Houston, an agreement that boosted the smaller city's fledgling animal-care service off the ground. The Mat-Su Borough had previously provided animal care duties in Wasilla but lost the contract in 2003 when it asked to up its contract price.

Haskell said he has been working to get the Wasilla animal-care contract since he was hired last year. It makes more sense for city residents, he said.

"It's easier for the public to reach us," he said.

Haskell said he plans to ask the Mat-Su Assembly this month to create a new animal-call dispatcher and records-keeping position. The new position would help free up more time for officers to respond to calls, he said. The contract will help pay for the position.

Houston Mayor Roger Purcell said money is the reason Houston lost the contract too. Purcell said his city was subsidizing animal-care duties for Wasilla. This year he asked to bump up the contract price to reflect actual costs. Instead of the 2008 contract rate of $65,000, Purcell said he asked for $158,000.

"We're right at about $130,000 (in spending) this year in animal control already. That's with cutting corners and doing grants," Purcell said.

Houston began providing services to Wasilla in 2003 for $26,000 a year. For the 10 years prior to that, Mat-Su Borough Animal Care had been providing animal care services for about the same price.

But borough officials told the city the contract wasn't enough to cover growing costs and renegotiated the contract in 2003. City leaders balked at the $150,000 price tag of the new contract, which included the cost of hiring a new officer to focus on Wasilla calls. The borough lowered its initial offer to about $70,000, but Wasilla City Council members ultimately chose Houston.

Houston has incrementally raised its contract since then, to $60,000 by 2006. But a grant that paid the salary of one of the two city animal care officers -- a key factor offsetting Wasilla's contract cost -- ended about a year ago, Purcell said.

Purcell said the grant ended while the city was amid a flurry of administrative changes, so the city didn't renegotiate the contract last year to reflect the higher actual cost. This year, Purcell said, renegotiating was a must.

"We can't subsidize it. They have to pay their fair share. We're happy to continue doing it as long as they pay what's fair and equitable," Purcell said.

The hefty cost increase in part reflected rising costs for fuel, utilities, vehicle maintenance and vet bills, as well as the cost of hiring another employee to help offset the round-the clock on-call schedule now managed by Animal Control Chief Dennis Lords and officer Rick Molburg.

Purcell said Houston's contract is for full animal services -- enforcement, education, round-the-clock emergency response, shelter services and adoptions. He said Wasilla officials asked for a quote for emergency-only services, like the package the borough is providing. But he couldn't oblige.

The Mat-Su Borough provides round-the-clock staffing with or without Wasilla's contract. But at Houston, the after-hours call volume doesn't require 24-hour coverage.

Lords said about 80 percent of his calls originate in Wasilla, including a half-dozen or so after-hours calls each month.

Purcell said his city has picked up 250 animals and responded to nearly 3,000 animal calls so far this year in Wasilla alone.

Purcell said losing the contract will mean changes for the city.

Lords will become a community-service officer, delivering subpoenas, dealing with city code-enforcement issues and perhaps conducting traffic stops.

ADVERTISEMENT