NEW SCOTLAND — The town board held a special meeting on Tuesday night to discuss its animal-control program. The town is at a crossroads once again trying to decided what form the service should take: how much the town is willing to pay for the program, how many employees are needed, when will they be on call, and what their hours and duties would be.

The most recent program came to a screeching halt after two of the three animal-control officers quit. The program is hard to maintain because of the odd hours and the time commitment, said Darrell Duncan, the highway superintendent who oversees the animal-control program.

Also, until this spring, the village of Voorheesville shared the cost of the program with the town. The village has since split off, and started its own smaller program.

Supervisor Ed Clark said that the town has not made the post attractive to provide for and keep the employees enthused. At last budget time, some of the animal-control staff officers had requested that their salaries be doubled; the town gave a smaller raise instead.

The captain of the officers was budgeted $5,767 this year. His officers were budgeted $5,371 each.

Duncan said, when the two officers left on July 1, he asked them if they would still be leaving if they got paid more; they paused really thinking about it, and didn’t really give an answer, he said.
"Money is nice," said Kevin Schenmeyer, the captain and sole remaining animal-control officer, "but I don’t think its the whole issue."

He explained that the job has seen a number of employees leave because it requires a certain lifestyle. One of the officers just got married another has children, Schenmeyer said, making the availability a problem. It’s just about time periods of peoples lives and life stages, he said.

What next"

The town board members asked Schenmeyer what would be ideal for the position. He has been running the whole program and been on call all by himself over the last month.

It was hectic but manageable, Schenmeyer said, citing the very warm weather as the reason why animals haven’t been as rambunctious as usual. On average, he has been getting only one or two phone calls a day, Schenmeyer said. Most of the calls are about loose dogs, he added. The town of New Scotland has an ordinance that all dogs, when outside, have to be on a leash or fenced in an enclosed area.

Schenmeyer advised the board if he ran the program he would hire one full-time person and another person to help out.
Duncan said the problem then is defining "full time;" does that mean set office hours, doing paperwork during the day, being on call at all times everyday, or setting their own hours based on calls.

Duncan and Schenmeyer agreed that the town animal-control program worked the best most recently, when there were three part-time employees, each being on call for one week at a time and then off for two weeks.

Clark said that the three employees had been doing a good job, but that the demands of the job were just too much.
"I’m not wanting to scale back," Councilwomen Deborah Baron said. She said one way the town can pick up more revenue to pay for the program that has grown over the years, is by increasing the fee schedule, price of licenses, and fines for not following town dog ordinances.

The town hasn’t had a enumeration program since 1980, and Baron said that she would like to pick that up again.
Baron said she is troubled if the town has local ordinances, including requiring licenses and forbidding dogs at large, but then doesn’t have the manpower to enforce those laws. "Maybe we need to get rid of them," Baron said of the ordinances.

The town attorney, Michael Mackey, suggested four part-time employees rotating every 4 weeks, to ease the burden of the unpredictable on-call hours. Duncan said that the program hasn’t even been able to just keep three people.
"I don’t think it was money as much as inconvenience," Councilwoman Andrea Gleason said.

Clark said that the town has increased pay significantly over the years and that he would like to diminish the expectation of services and cut back on hours and pay.

We’re in a society and time when people expect more, Baron responded.

On the job

Schenmeyer explained to the board what he does. He picks up dead animals, and enforces the rules and regulations of town, leash laws and of controlling animals. He also has to follow the Department of Agriculture and Markets regulations, which includes responding to nuisance calls, and picking up loose or dangerous dogs, he said.

The board asked Schenmeyer how long he can continue being the only officer, while it designs the program and hires more employees.
"I do feel a little overwhelmed," he said adding that he was hoping to go on vacation in August.

The board decided to ask the men who just recently left the program to fill in for Schenmeyer when he’s on vacation and then have Schenmeyer continue as the only animal control officer, receiving the pay that is the currently budgeted for three officers, since he will be fulfilling all the duty hours.

Duncan reminded the board that, if the town continues to pay Schenmeyer at the old rate, then there will be a short fall of about $2,000 to $3,000 by the end of the year, because Voorheesville’s old share won’t be coming in.

Baron asked if Schenmeyer would be okay with remaining the only officer until January, when the next budget starts and have the new program start then as well.
"It seems it has run very well...it has worked out better than we thought," Gleason said.

Councilmen Scott Houghtaling said that the town doesn’t want to burn out the one long-lasting loyal officer. He would like to have a new program start with additional employees hired by the end of September.