HANSON – Town Administrator Lisa Green told the Select Board on Tuesday, Jan 9, that they should seriously consider increasing the Animal Control budget to $72,000 for fiscal 2025 – to include a full-time animal control officer, while supplying vehicle equipment to lift heavy animals, such as deer, from the roads and reopening the town’s animal shelter as a temporary holding facility.
That would be an increase of $43,034 from $28,966 for salary and costs ($2,500 for expenses; $800 for supplies; $1,800 for vehicles, none of which have ever been used) with some expenses reduced and others increased ($2,500 for supplies, $15,000 for building repair, $5,000 for utilities, and $5,000 for expenses). Green said those expenses could be adjusted if some supplies and labor were donated.
The Select Board voted to support a warrant on the matter and to explore the placement of the ACO under the auspices of the police department.
“This is not a want, this is now a requirement,” Green said.
The reason – tremendous growth of housing stock now under construction in town and the often-accompanying problem of abandoned pets when tenants move or are evicted.
“Hanson is growing tremendously and Mass. General Laws state that each town must have an animal control officer,” Green said. “We can’t ignore it anymore.”
There are now four apartment buildings going in on Main Street. Liberty Wood will have 56 units; Station Landing will have 49 units; Dakota Partners, which has been open for a year, has 48 units; Cushing Trail will have 40 units, there are nine new houses going in on County Road – a total of 206 housing units.
She said that prior to the opening of developer Dakota Partners’ Depot Station apartment complex, abandoned animals had not been a focus of the town. When there was a need, they have used the Lakeville animal shelter for the last few years.
Hanson has been sharing animal control services with other communities, which has worked well until recently, Green said, calling it a “complex area” because of the range of calls that come in, from animals of all sizes hit by vehicles to dog bites or attacks, bear sightings or livestock in crisis.
“It’s a 24/7 job because they’re on call,” she said. “Animal Control officers generally don’t patrol because, basically, we don’t have the resources to do that.”
ACO Joe Kenney, who has been working with Hanson since 2019, has done so on a part-time, 16-hour per week basis. Hanson does not provide any type of equipment for the work or resources for where to put carcasses or shelter confiscated animals or the protective apparel he might need.
The vehicle that was being used for animal control has been used recently by the Highway Department and will be redeployed to Kenney’s use.
“With the arrival of these multi-unit facilities, we’re facing new challenges,” she said, citing the example of evicted tenants. “They leave their pets behind. … It is, under the law, the town’s responsibility to remove that animal.”
Making a problem more difficult is the fact that most area shelters do not accept cats, so Kenney has been bringing abandoned felines to his home until he can find a shelter to take it in.
“We can’t have our animal control officer bringing these animals to his house,” Green said, citing liability to the town if he was bitten. He also ends up bringing abandoned or confiscated dogs to his house if Lakeville’s shelter is full. Hanson has an animal shelter, but it has been closed since 2012. Hanson pays Lakeville a rate per day for the time a dog is kept there, and that town is discussing raising the cost to $250 per dog per day when they do have room.
“Not to mention he’s not getting paid for taking care of the animal at his home,” Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
Kenney said most of Hanson’s dogs are usually claimed because they are someone’s pet – at times before he has completed the 40-minute drive to Lakeville. Farm animals for which he is called cannot go to Lakeville anyway.
“I think the time has come, as the town grows, to seriously look at reopening that shelter,” Green said.
She has increased the ACO salary in the fiscal 2025 budget and allotted funds to reopen the animal shelter, working with South Shore Tech to have students fix it up, as well as funding the supplies Kenney needs.
“He is an excellent animal control officer, he knows the laws, he works very well with the people, he loves animals and I think we need to pay attention to this, increase the budgets, reopen the shelter and possibly partner with Abington,” Green said.
Abington also lacks a shelter, she noted adding that she has already reached out to the Abington town manager to perhaps begin discussing a partnership toward sharing costs.
Most South Shore towns either contract out, work with Boston Field Services or partner with other towns for animal control, but Green said those arrangements do not always work out.
“It has not historically worked for us,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We’ve done Whitman, East Bridgewater, now Lakeville, and there’s always some issue.”
She also said that, since Kenney has been the ACO, she has heard very few, if any complaints about responsiveness or any of the problems the town has had in the past and that, compared to others in the region, he is not paid appropriately.
“And yet, here he is, doing his job and not complaining about it and doing it well,” she said.
FitzGerald-Kemmett asked for an estimate of the cost to rehabilitate the shelter building an whether ARPA money could be used. The ACO salary is currently $20,566 for the year, Green said. A full-time position would be budgeted for $41,000 for the increased hours.
Green said she will look into the ARPA question, and that Town Hall facilities staffer Charlie Baker is gathering quotes to repair leaks in the roof; it should cost about $350 to clear overgrowth at the rear of the building; she is looking into having SST remove kennel fencing and gates to restore and rustproof them; and is calculating utility costs.
“I have put a budget of $15,000 in for rehabilitation of the building,” Green said. “What’s good about animal shelters is there’s a lot of interest from volunteers … so we’re reaching out to different resources for helping get that animal shelter back up and running.”