PAXTON — With no one in the animal control officer position, Paxton has been relying on Rutland’s ACO to respond to calls.
That has worked well as an interim solution, so the town is looking at it being a more permanent one.
The idea of regionalizing the service has been broached before, but the Paxton Select Board at its Sept. 12 meeting voted to pursue the option.
An intermunicipal agreement between the two towns would bring Rutland’s animal control officer, with their experience and already working with several towns, into the position of responding to Paxton calls as needed.
Already doing the work since the former Paxton animal control officer resigned, Rutland’s Jennifer Ford would continue to respond, but under a more formal intermunicipal agreement.
Select Board Chairman Julia Pingitore said previous boards have talked about the possibility of regionalizing the position.
“It looks like Rutland is agreeable,” she said, and Paxton selectmen discussed moving beyond concept to implementation and the costs.
Town Administrator Heather Munroe said Rutland already has an agreement with other towns.
When the Paxton ACO resigned, Munroe said, “The first thing we needed was to get a gap measure going to fill the hole.” That is when they connected with the Rutland police chief.
She said Rutland was “very generous” and moved forward at no initial cost.
She said Holden was considered as a partner but needed a lot of things to be put into place, whereas Rutland was already doing the work for multiple towns under similar agreements.
“The animal control officer has a good reputation,” Munroe said. “We’ll give it a try for a year, and it is up and running. It also takes one more thing off our plates” not managing a person in the position.
She said the arrangement would cost about $1,130 more than Paxton budgets for the position for the year, with Rutland charging based on population for the towns it serves.
But some financial maneuvering is needed, since the funding is required up front but the current funds are allocated for a wage rather than a service. Munroe said she will work with the Finance Committee to use reserve funds, and later in the year return funds when the town can shift the salary and supplies funds. Because they are set in the budget line items approved at town meeting, reallocation is more complicated.
Pingitore asked, “Is she (Rutland’s ACO) going to have enough bandwidth to accommodate us?”
Munroe said that most things would not trigger a call to the animal control officer.
“Give it a year. If it works, great. It’s an opportunity to try something a little different and see how it goes,” Munroe said.
Selectman Kirk Huehls supported moving forward with the plan.
“I think it’s kind of a better deal.” Noting that “skunks and raccoons issues were never dealt with in the past, it sounds like a better direction,” Huehls said.
“It sounds like we’re going to get a more comprehensive service,” Pingitore said.
