Woodbridge Kicks up Effort to Keep Animal Shelter a Joint-Effort

In an old-fashioned game of Farmer in the Dell, Woodbridge could be left standing alone. Bethany's Board of Selectmen last night agreed to submit a letter of intent to withdraw from the regional District Animal Control. If the two towns do not renew their contract with DAC, Woodbridge will be, as the saying goes, on its own.

"We're all frustrated and there's a reason there's a six-month notification period," says Joseph Hellauer, administrator for the Town of Woodbridge and treasurer on the regional District Animal Control Board. He says, "We're taking some steps in the right direction," but, he says Woodbridge is not going to submit a letter to DAC requesting to withdraw. He is hopeful that the three towns can continue to cooperatively remediate the managerial problems plaguing the animal shelter.

Animal Control Officer Paul Neiedmann, who has been accused of not keeping proper records about the calls he goes on, says he does keep records for the entire district, but a request for a town-by-town breakdown of calls takes time.

"Just today we went out for call about an aggressive dog. We've already been there three times. I'm getting the impression they [the selectmen] see that we bring in 15 dogs in three months and that's it," Niedmann says. "There are many horse calls and that information has to be forwarded to the state. We're called to schools for dead squirrels. People call for raccoons and goats. These are things that are not reflected on a state report, which indicates how many animals are picked up, how many are returned to their owners, how many were euthanized and how many are adopted out. It doesn't account for raccoons and sheep."

Keeping records is not that hard to do, the animal control officer says, but he says he needs direction on exactly what the selectmen are looking for.

At its monthly meeting in December, Woodbridge Selectmen voted in approval of taking over all of the financial and accounting operations for DAC.

"We'll make District Animal Control somewhat similar in fashion to any of our other departments, which will give us a good accounting system, with about 35 departments all using the same software for bookkeeping and accounting," Hellauer says. 

At that same meeting the Orange First Selectman expressed frustration that adequate records were not being collected. He recommended using an Excel spreadsheet that is easily sortable.

"That's fine," Niedmann told Patch this afternoon, "But they have to get the software on my computer. My computer's very old. We're on a shoestring budget. It sounds like a lot of money we're talking about, but a lot of the work is done by volunteers."

Since the shelter is in Woodbridge, Hellauer has the operational oversight for the building such as plowing, maintaining the grounds, and repairs to the building.

"The problem is that we [DAC] have a budget of $220,000, and we'll be losing about two-thirds of it if Orange and Bethany do pull out," Hellauer says.

Based on resident population, Orange contributes half of the budget, Bethany's portion is 18 percent and Woodbridge funds the remaining 32 percent.

"It's an issue that Mr. Sheehy is well aware of and he will continue to work with Mr. Zeoli and Mrs. Gorski. They may be different politically, but this is not a political issue. They're working as CEOs as their respective towns in a very cooperative and collaborative fashion."

Hellauer says there has been a problem with the reliability of the part-time staff the shelter hires and he'd  like to see DAC hire a second full-time person who is "well-qualified and a good administrator to pass along the information."  

"I'll be glad to sit down with the board and selectmen, but I don't have the power to ask. That's the power of the board," Niedmann says. "If the board came to me and asked me to sit in on a meeting, I'd do it."

"You have to give credit where credit is due," Niedmann told Patch. "I feel like we're getting a black eye and badgered. The budget isn't that big to begin with, to meet the needs of vehicles that are constantly on the road, just like police cars."

"I know a lot of the problems go back to previous administrations and things are done differently now, but there are still problems," Niedmann says. 

When DAC was designed in the 1980s, one of the contractual items was that any town may leave, but they have to give six months notice. First Selectman Jim Zeoli submitted notification to withdraw on behalf of his town at a meeting of DAC commissioners in early December.

DAC, under the watchful eye of the first selectmen from Woodbridge, Orange and Bethany, has cleaned up what was an operation littered with financial problems.

"We have not had a problem with anything monetarily for well over three years—that's when Jim Zeoli became chairman of the board and I became treasurer," Hellauer says. "The three first selectpersons all working closely together on this as they do on many other items including schools."

"What their letters of intent to withdraw did was put them in a good position to negotiate and try to make the right things happen. One of the issues we've been having is trying to get good consistent help to work in the shelter," Hellauer says.