Cheyenne Animal Shelter Funding Issues On Weekend In Wyoming
A discussion of the recently announced decision by the City of Cheyenne and Laramie County to end their contract with the Cheyenne Animal Shelter will be discussed on the ''Weekend in Wyoming" program at AM 650, KGAB on Saturday.
At 11:05, our guest will be Cheyenne City Councilman Richard Johnson, who is also the city representative on the animal shelter board. As Townsquare Media's Joy Greenwald reported on Thursday
The Cheyenne Animal Shelter says it received notice Thursday afternoon that the City of Cheyenne and Laramie County plan to end their long-standing contract with the shelter.
Under the current contract, which expires June 30, the shelter gets paid $800,000 a year to serve as the city and county’s designated open-intake shelter.
But it says with rising inflation and employment expenses, providing these services costs in excess of $1.3 million.
The Shelter has operated at a deficit with these contracts for more than 10 years," the agency said in a media release.
"The recent opening contract proposal was for $1.25 million ... similar to opening asks in negotiations for the past several years," the shelter added.
The shelter says it appears the city and county intend to provide a lesser version of services themselves, but it's extremely unlikely they can provide equivalent services for less than the shelter does.
Meanwhile, Mayor Patrick Collins, in his ''Mayor's Minute" Column on Friday, said
Dr. Vernon shared that a model of community social services included things like providing veterinary services for low-income people, pet food, euthanasia, and crematory services for the same group, boarding services for folks in the hospital, a community cat program, training of emotional support animals, animal behavioral services, among other things. The question is, should public tax dollars be spent to support these very worthy services? We have shared with the CAS that these services are what folks donate money to, such as the Fur Ball, Day of Giving, and other charitable endeavors, and are not appropriate expenditures of tax dollars.
To pay for these social service programs, the CAS believes the city and county are responsible for paying 70 percent of their total general fund budgeted for $2.5 million. For the city and county, that cost would amount to $1.75 million. For the past two years that I have been mayor, the city and county have questioned what our financial responsibility should be. That is where the big rub comes into the picture. If you can’t even agree on what our responsibilities are, how do you agree on the funding?
We'll be taking calls and comments on the issue at 632-6500.
At 11:33 we'll discuss the annual Cheyenne Day of Giving with Greta Morrow. At 12:05 we'll interview Karen Miller of CRMC Behavioral Sciences on substance abuse disorder in our community and programs to deal with the problem.
And at 12:33, we'll air our monthly gardening segment with Mike Heath.
Join us from 11-1 on Saturday on AM 650. KGAB!
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