Bristol, Dresden, Waldoboro and Whitefield plan to continue to research a cooperative approach to animal control, although what that approach might look like remains unclear.
County and town officials talked about the challenges of animal control at the second countywide meeting on the subject April 25 at the Damariscotta town office.
The idea with the most support appears to be a county animal control officer network modeled on the county’s shellfish warden program. Lincoln County currently contracts with Bremen, Bristol and South Bristol to provide shellfish wardens.
The wardens are county employees. The county pays the wardens and the towns pay the county an hourly rate for the service, said Lincoln County Sheriff Todd Brackett.
The county could coordinate a similar approach to animal control, Brackett said.
The county would deputize existing municipal animal control officers who already have training and vaccinations and dispatch them to participating towns as necessary. The county would pay the officers and the towns would pay the county for the officers’ time.
Several animal control officers in Lincoln County already cover multiple towns. The county system would allow those officers flexibility to cross municipal boundaries without concerns about insurance and workers’ compensation issues.
Several towns have struggled to retain animal control officers. The adaptation of the shellfish warden system, some said, might resolve this issue without the expense of a full-time salary and benefits for one or more animal control officers.
The county could also begin to build a central database for animal complaints, Brackett said.
A full-time county animal control officer appears unlikely, as only a few towns support the idea and the county says it cannot afford to provide the service.
Bristol Deputy Animal Control Officer Mike Witte said one or two full-time county animal control officers would still need backup from deputies in each town.
Bristol had 102 domestic animal calls in 2012, Witte said. The call volume peaks during the summer, as part-time residents arrive for the season and visitors flock to the region.
Every season, the animal control officers receive calls about dogs in vehicles with the windows up on hot days, as well as other complaints, especially at town parks.
“Probably July, August and the first week of September it’s almost a daily call to the beach or to the lighthouse,” Witte said.
The off-season call volume is unpredictable, but still sometimes more than a single individual can handle.
“There was a day last week that [Bristol Animal Control Officer] Kyle [Emerson] and I, working just in Bristol, could not keep up with the calls,” Witte said. “In Damariscotta, Newcastle, Bristol, you cannot function with one animal control officer.”
According to a March survey, four towns are interested in countywide animal control, six are not, and eight did not respond or had not decided.
Three of the “maybe” towns, Dresden, Waldoboro and Whitefield, were among the towns expressing interest at the April meeting. One of the “yes” towns changed its answer to no. Just one of the “no” towns, Westport Island, was represented at the meeting.
“You’re going to have to end up with three [animal control officers] to cover the county,” said Westport Island First Selectman George Richardson Jr. “You’re going to have a high mileage cost, depending on where they are and where they have to travel to.”
Richardson said he prefers to maintain the status quo, which requires towns to provide animal control.
“We’re a small town. We take care of our own,” he said.
Waldoboro expressed interest in some form of county animal control, with reservations.
“For me, it’s all or none,” said Waldoboro Police Chief Bill Labombarde. “Either the county is going to do it or I’m going to do it.”
The chief said he would have concerns about a system with a full-time animal control officer and several deputies spread around the county, taking calls on a rotating schedule.
Waldoboro has a reliable animal control officer in Laurice Ducharme, and Labombarde wants to ensure the county officers would be equally responsive.
“I want to know, when I pick the phone up and say ‘I need an ACO over here,’ they’re on their way,” he said.
Labombarde also worries about losing Ducharme if she decides not to work for the county. “Animal control officers, they’re not easy to find, and there’s not people lined up around the building to do the job,” he said.
If the county and the towns can address those concerns, he would not object to a countywide system, he said.
Animal control is “a pain in the neck sometimes,” he said. “It’s a lot of work.”
“I have no problem taking animal control and giving it to someone else,” he said.
Officials from Bristol and Whitefield said their towns would spend more on animal control to free themselves of the hassle, especially problems with high turnover.
“It’d be worth paying more money than we’re paying now just to get rid of the headache,” said Bristol Board of Selectmen Chairman Bill Benner.
After four of the towns agreed to continue to investigate some form of collaborative animal control, Witte said other towns should reconsider whether they want to participate.
Even towns with dependable animal control officers should not be complacent, he said, because the situation can change at any time and leave the town scrambling, like many of its neighbors, for someone to take a challenging job with irregular hours and low pay.