The City’s Sustainable Animal Review Committee held their final meeting at City hall Thursday evening. Five members met over the past five months to figure out an economically sustainable way to run the city animal shelter.
Member, Francie Roberts, says the committee was formed to keep the shelter from closing.
“This past summer when the city began to face dire economic times, one of the suggestions was to just simply close the shelter and the city would save $130,000 dollars. And people that were proponents of the animal shelter became rather concerned in our community. Why would we be considering saving money and not help the animals? And so this committee began to say well let’s look at way we could save money and operate our shelter in a more efficient manner," said Roberts.
Roberts says the Committee reviewed a long list of ways to better run the shelter.
“We’ve already recommended to the City Council to change the fee schedule for the city. They hadn’t really been amended in a number of years. So we had already done that in December. We looked at things like city liability and improving tracking of finances for our shelter because we thought that would help run our shelter better. We looked at maintenance ideas. We visited the shelter to see if there was anything we could do to help the shelter have better maintenance and ways to run the shelter and we’ve come up with a few recommendations for the Council,” said Roberts.
Roberts says the group is pleased about a new partnership that will insure animals at the shelter stay healthy.
“One thing that we’re really excited about is we’ve arranged for the Homer Veterinary Clinic veterinarians to come visit on a pro bono basis to the shelter once a month. And Sherry Bess, our local contractor, who many, many people in our community know – when you visit the shelter she’s the person you meet. She and the veterinarians are really looking forward to this new partnership. We think it will help the animals a lot down at the shelter,” said Roberts.
Roberts says, among other things, the Committee will recommend that the city’s animal code, which dates back to 1988, be updated. The committee is set to terminate after they present their findings, however it looks like it may continue in a different capacity.
“The contractor, Sherry Bess, has decided that this has been beneficial enough that she’s going to continue a committee with Homer Animal Friends and some other interested parties, the Homer Police department will be involved, and they’re going to continue meeting every other month or something,” said Roberts.
The Sustainable Animal Review Committee will present their findings and recommendations to the City Council at their regular meeting on February 8th .
