Police to resume animal control services
By Rochelle Moore
Published in News on March 11, 2018 3:05 AM
The Goldsboro Police Department will resume its role in handling animal control services within the city limits, starting July 1.
For more than a year, Wayne County animal control officers have been providing service in Goldsboro as part of a temporary trial run.
Police Chief Mike West told the Goldsboro City Council Monday that the partnership will end in a few months, requiring the Goldsboro Police Department to hire an animal control officer.
West said the decision was driven by the high volume of animal control calls in the city.
"It's over 50 percent of their call volume now," West said.
The police department previously had a full-time animal control officer, who retired, and the job was advertised by the city in early 2017. Around that time, city and county officials discussed the possibility of the county taking over animal control service calls in the city.
By March 2017, Wayne County officers started handling service calls and city and county officials drafted an agreement. The agreement was never formally approved, even though city officials offered to pay the cost of the officer and related expenses, around $75,000, said Scott Stevens, city manager.
"They've done it for a year, really, at no cost to us," Stevens told council.
"The county manager did approach me and say that their board was not interested in providing that service any longer and, actually, would begin billing us March 1 for their cost, giving us until July 1 gives us that opportunity to phase into it."
The city will need to hire a full-time animal control officer, at an estimated starting salary of $32,607, with about $11,782 in benefits, West said.
The city will also need to purchase equipment, including animal traps, and an $18,713 truck for fleet maintenance, with the current fleet maintenance truck being returned to animal control, West said.
The total city cost to restart animal control is $63,688, West said.
"We need an animal control position," Councilman David Ham said. "We need to have that service.
"So, if the county has relinquished their willingness to do that, then we have assume that responsibility, and we have to fund it."
The animal control officer would become a non-sworn post within the Goldsboro Police Department and the job would include a Monday through Friday schedule. When the officer is not at work, police officers will assume the responsibility, and additional training is planned.
West said the animal control officer could be available, at other times, as needed.
"If it was a call that the officers could not handle, then we have the option of calling the animal control officer after hours and ask him to come back out to assist us," West said.
Also during the meeting Monday, the council approved site and landscape plans for what will become Wayne County's sixth Alcoholic Beverage Control store on Wayne Memorial Drive, near Tommy's Road.
Approval of the plans paves the way for the start of construction of the 5,000-square-foot store, which will be surrounded by a parking lot, rear loading dock and landscaping.