JOHN COFFELTEditor

Members of the Manchester Street and Streetlight Committee suggested at the Aug. 10 meeting a process be started that would bring subject of outsourcing city animal control to the county.

Addressing concerns brought to meeting by a resident, Alderman Julie Anderson said that if the shelter not be run properly, then she would like to expedite the discussion shifting it to the county.

“Next month maybe this committee could look at an option that would outsource city animal control to the county,” Anderson said.

“If they were willing to take that over, we would transfer that line item of a budget to them and that their employees could do that until they get a new shelter,” she said. “If we’re not going to do it professionally, we don’t need to be doing it.”

Vice Mayor Mark Messick estimated that a majority of the committee would support the transfer.

Alderman Ryan French, however, said he would not support transferring the funds to the county.

“If we give county government money to take over animal control, then our citizens are being double taxed,” French said. They are already being taxed on the county side to do that service, so I’m not for giving them money for it.”

Anderson said, “It doesn’t matter to me whether we do it professionally or if we get them to do it, but we need to do it correctly.”

Street Department Director George Gannon addressed issues brought to the committee by the public, saying that the animal control officer, Jonathan Brandon, maintains records of animal calls that he responds to and that Brandon spends a significant amount of time at city court related to animal citations. There is just one animal control officer with the city, but a street department employee can be pulled from other tasks to help out as needed. Gannon said that his budget only covers one officer.

Anderson said that the optics could appear that the committee holds animal control as a low priority since it does not request regular updates from the shelter’s operation.

The discussion concerning outsourcing the shelter will be brought up at the September meeting.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.