March 11, 2010

County tables shelter levy

By Keri Brenner
The Chronicle

    Oregon elections law guidelines do not allow enough time for Home at Last Humane Society animal shelter to post a special property tax levy measure on the May 18 primary elections ballot, shelter officials said Wednesday.
    “Wasco County counsel told us it is too late legally to get it on the May 18 ballot,” said Janna Hage, Home at Last’s executive director. “The earliest would be the November 2010 ballot, which means we could not collect any money until July 1, 2011.”
    To bridge a serious budget gap and keep the shelter from closing June 30 as warned, Hage and a group of supporters urged the public to attend a Wasco County Board of Commissioners meeting on Wednesday, March 17 at 1:30 p.m. at the Wasco County Courthouse, 511 Washington St., The Dalles.
    “We are looking for options and solutions so that we can go forward with the shelter,” said Sheila Dooley, a Home at Last foster parent and incoming board member. “We don’t want to go back to the days when they were euthanizing 1,000 cats and dogs a year.”
    Commissioners Bill Lennox and Sherry Holliday on Wednesday said they hoped residents would attend next week’s public meeting prepared with ideas on how to finance the shelter. Commissioner Dan Ericksen was absent Wednesday due to his outreach trip to Washington, D.C. with other local city, county and state officials.
    “It’s unfortunately a very difficult issue for the community to address,” Lennox said. “But I’m optimistic that we can come up with a plan beneficial to everyone and to the animals.”
    Both Lennox and Holliday said they have received numerous phone calls from county residents concerned about the effect a Home at Last property tax measure would have on the increasing tax burden on area families.
    That was after Hage’s March 3 appeal to county commissioners for permission to go out for a five-year special levy of 20 cents per $1,000 of assessed value — or $40 more per year for a home assessed at $200,000. Hage said the shelter would have to close June 30 unless the community could generate enough money to cover a $60,000 budget shortfall for 2010-11.
    “People are really strapped right now,” Lennox said in describing the recent phone calls. “Another issue is that people are concerned about supporting a levy that would go to a private nonprofit agency without some public understanding of controls on finances — ‘You can’t just give out a blank check,’ they said.”
    Holliday said the residents in her South Wasco County neighborhood told her they didn’t feel they should have to pay for the special tax levy when many of the cats and dogs that go to Home at Last are from The Dalles area.
    “It was a question of fairness on their part,” Holliday said.
But Kathy Norton, a Home at Last foster parent and incoming board member, said the situation was dire.
    “If there’s no funding and no community support, we will have to close,” Norton said.     “We hope people will come next week with solutions at hand.”
    The animal shelter was formerly under the Wasco County Sheriff’s Office until Home at Last took it over and made it a private nonprofit about five years ago. Wasco County Sheriff Richard Eiesland said last week his office, which finances a salary for Animal Control Officer Brad Heinige, has neither the budget nor staff available to take the shelter back.