White County Judge Plans to ‘Get His Toes Wet’ While Examining Possibility of County Animal Shelter | New

“They raised money through the tax on volunteers [for a shelter].

“They got up to $ 2 million with this volunteer tax, so I just want you to know that we have another neighboring county that is taking a pretty impressive step towards this animal control issue.”

Lincoln said there is a kennel on Crosby Road “that doesn’t seem to be working anymore,” and that he would try to locate the owner to see if that person would be interested in renting it out to the county or even putting it up for sale. . He said he would take the idea to the quorum court for discussion.

Lincoln said he was in talks with other county judges about animal shelters, “starting with a place where you could deal with vicious animals.” Referring to the kennel which is not functioning at the moment, he said that “this place would be ideal for that …”.

Lincoln said Faulkner County Judge Jim Baker told him, “You’d be surprised how many people are giving more” to the $ 1.07 annual tax on Conway animal shelters, one of the county’s eight voluntary taxes, which also includes an $ 8 animal welfare and control tax. . He said Baker was adamant about securing shelter for the community.

The Faulkner County Quorum Court voted 12-1 in July to spend more than $ 400,000 to buy property for the home of its first animal shelter.

Lincoln told the justices of the peace he just wanted them to know he hadn’t forgotten about this project.

“This is what counties do everywhere” when it comes to animal shelters, he said. “Faulkner is about to jump very high. I’m just trying to look at something that we can get our toes wet and see what it looks like. We don’t have a lot of spending and see what the demand is.

When asked how an animal shelter might be funded, Lincoln said it would likely initially come from the county general fund.

“I don’t expect it to be an overwhelming amount, especially if we’re just renting. We won’t know until we get there, ”said Lincoln. “I remain open to the idea of ​​working with the collector, of setting up what is called this voluntary tax. It’s simple, we determine how much is put into it.

“From what I understand, the difference between the fire tax [fire department dues collected through the tax collector] wouldn’t not paying that cause it [property taxes] to be delinquent.

Justice of the Peace Nathan Lincoln asked his father, “Why care about a county funded animal shelter?” Lincoln told him the reason it came up in the first place was that several years ago the county had a contract with the Humane Society of Searcy. “The audit has changed the way we enter into contracts where the actual service is to be provided by the person receiving the county funds. “

Lincoln said, for example, that White County has a contract with the White County Child Safety Center. “For this money we give them, they provide a service to the county that the county government cannot provide, and which takes care of child victims of sexual abuse.” He used domestic violence and the Red Cross as two other examples. He said the contract should state what service is provided.

Lincoln said that by approaching the Searcy Humane Society, they would not be giving us any services to provide. I told them to take five dogs; they didn’t want to do it, so we stopped giving them money, and because of that … in the big rural areas, there is nothing for people ”regarding shelters for animals.

“White County has been in the news over the years with mistreated horses. Pulaski County is coming to pick them up, ”he said. “So every now and then it becomes an embarrassment for us. We are not proactive when it comes to animal or animal related issues. “