The Frankfort City Council elected to take no action on a funding request from the Clinton County Humane Society Monday night.
“We decided to leave the budget the way it is right now because we’re waiting on information from the board of the Humane Society,” said Frankfort City Councilman Jim Moyer, who was filling in for Mayor Chris McBarnes, who was absent. “They are suppose to come to our next meeting on the 24th and give us a presentation on what the story is out there.”
With the 2019 budget looming, talks centered on funding for various items. The Humane Society receives $20,000 from the city for its Trap, Spay and Neuter program. However, the Humane Society is asking for $22,000 next year and Moyer added they have already went over their budget for this year on this item.
“They have already spent more than $20,000 on that and I have figures to show that,” said Moyer.
Moyer added the Humane Society has an additional $10,000 of unused funds that they do not intend to ask for.
The Humane Society receives $95,000 in funding from the county and has asked for an additional $5,000 for next year. Both the Clinton County Commissioners and Clinton County Council have agreed funding needs to continue basically because the Humane Society is the agency taking care of animal control. Those two agencies, plus the City Council, have agreed it would be disastrous if funding is not given to the Humane Society especially for the animals, who would likely be euthanized if not claimed in a short period of time. Also, overall care of the animals will be costlier.
One thing the three governing groups agree on is that a better checks and balances system needs to be in place. Another item of contention is the condition of the building that the animals are housed in. It is not in good shape and most feel it is rapidly deteriorating.
About 35 people attended the meeting. Just one spoke on the matter.
Stephanie Crum of rural Frankfort said she has been doing her own personal audit on the Humane Society and added the Humane Society has problems.
“It has not been functioning and the whole board has failed,” said Crum, who added an outside committee should be formed to help with the matter.
The city has two other areas which currently do not have budget numbers associated with them currently — the pool at TPA Park and the upcoming city elections.
“We’re going to put $50,000 into the budget right now to cover the cost of the elections,” said Moyer. “If we get better figures, we may change it later on. We can make changes in the budget up until its published and I’m not sure when they’re going to publish it. We have another meeting on the 24th for the first reading.”
Moyer said city elections cost just under $50,000 in 2011 but increased to $85,000 in 2015.
The pool is an entirely different animal because of the all the problems which happened this past year plus the uncertainty if it will be open next year.
“We don’t know what to do about that pool because we’ve been informed that it’s got a crack again and they may not be able to even open it next year,” said Moyer. “We’ve got problems with the slide and there’s other problems. Some people may want to be building a new pool. We have to have a study done on what needs to be done. We have no idea where we stand on that.”