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Mayor and Commission Approves New Animal Services Department

On Oct. 1, the Athens-Clarke County Mayor and Commission unanimously approved a new Animal Services Department, which will address the growing need for more staff.

It will have three new full-time positions instead of the previous five part-time positions and will have a new director.

The new department, headed temporarily by Selah Gardiner, includes animal shelter services and animal control field services.

The previous department was formerly the Animal Control Division of the Central Services Department and was operated by an animal control superintendent. Whereas it had nine full-time positions and 10 part-time positions, the new department has 12 full-time and five part-time. A permanent animal shelter supervisor position is in the hiring process.

“Establishing Animal Services as a department and updating its staffing needs to reflect its growing intake operations is just the first step in a process to improve our animal-related services to the community,” said Manager Blaine Williams in a press release. “We’re developing this process not only with internal feedback from staff and volunteers but also by consulting with other animal service partner organizations in the community.”

A project for an animal shelter expansion was approved in 2011, which doubled the cat capacity, but additional staff was never added. A new part-time position was approved in 2017 and two more in 2018 to address the workload.

On Nov. 5, voters can approve or deny SPLOST 2020, which would provide funding for renovations and improvements as well as additions to dog kennels, front offices and public spaces for the shelter. 

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