Two weeks ago, Galesburg City Council voted to enter into a 3-year contract with the Prairieland Animal Welfare Center in connection with the Knox County Humane Society to provide animal control and sheltering services at a price of $248,376 per year.
With only one dissenting vote, the contract will cost the city about $17,000 more than what all of Peoria County pays for animal control to take in roughly four times the number of animals, according to 2015 figures compiled by city officials.
In light of these numbers and ongoing economic strife — currently, Council is struggling to find a way to pay for police and firefighter pensions while addressing a deficit budget — City Manager Todd Thompson tells WGIL the city needs to make changes to animal control in the future.
He suggests “the city and the county working together with the Humane Society to try to develop some comprehensive approach to ensure that we’re providing these services as efficiently as possible.”
The Knox County Humane Society sheltered 1,183 animals last year compared to about 4,500 animals in Peoria County. Humane Society Director Erin Buckmaster says those numbers don’t take into account the large number of animals Peoria County puts down as opposed to sheltering them for extended periods.
She further says the city’s $248,376 contract price pays for well over half the the Humane Society’s operating costs, mostly going toward the facility’s 12 employees, just three of whom are animal control officers.
“And last year it cost us $431,000 to run our shelter with 12 employees,” Buckmaster says, and taking in over 1,000 animals.”
Ward 7 Alderman Jeremy Karlin was the lone vote against the contract. He says his main reasoning was “that we shouldn’t outsource policing functions to non-city employees” and that “our employees who would be hired to handle animal control could also handle other community policing duties like neighborhood watch.”
The 3-year contract with PAWC has an optional 5-year alternative.
