News

Flat Rock in no-service zone for animal control

By Bill Moss, Published: July 18, 2012

FLAT ROCK — Pressure is building on the Flat Rock Village Council to do something about animal control.

The village is the only incorporated municipality in the county that has neither a police department nor a contract for a sheriff's deputy, and residents say that means no enforcement of county animal laws.
"We set aside $427,000 in the budget for sidewalks and we can't pay our share for animal control?" said Jeri London Gonzales, a Kenmure resident who says strays from Pinnacle Mountain Road roam into the golf course neighborhood. She says she has an invisible fence but does not let Sophie, her Welsh springer spaniel, go out alone because she fears packs of dogs could be a threat.
"The county's pointing at the village and the village is pointing at the county," Gonzales said. "This is a service that has got to be resolved before there's an incident. It's the wild west here."
Complaints from Flat Rock residents are reaching critical mass. No one is saying that wild dogs are overrunning the town but Village Council members say they do want to respond to residents' concerns.
Mayor Robert Staton, who was out of town this week and not reachable for an interview, has been trying to come up with a solution. He told the council in April that the village could contract for a deputy through the sheriff's department, at roughly $100,000 a year, or it could look into hiring a private nuisance control service, which could cost as much.

Although animal control is something of a patchwork, officials in towns that have police departments — Laurel Park, Fletcher and Hendersonville — say they have a workable compromise. Town officers respond to complaints of barking dogs, strays, and abuse or neglect. They call animal control as backup. The sheriff's department took over animal control enforcement about two years ago after the Board of Commissioners adopted a stricter countywide ordinance.

The agreement between the towns and the county has one big exception. Last fall, Sheriff Rick Davis had a meeting with the town managers in the county and explained that the department could not afford to provide full animal enforcement in every town. According to town managers who were there, Davis said that if towns would pay, animal control would go into the municipalities to enforce the county animal ordinance, which is stricter than state law that governs dog bites and crimes like animal cruelty. Davis had even calculated a cost for each town, based on population: Fletcher, $24,750; Hendersonville, $45,277; Flat Rock, $10,725; Laurel Park, $7,505.

They all said no. "We didn't need it," said Laurel Park manager Jim Ball. "Everything's working fine."
There was one problem. The town that most needed help wasn't there. Either because of a fumble by the sheriff's office or the village of Flat Rock, the village did not attend.

 "I can tell you why," Mayor Bob Staton said. "We weren't invited."

Flat Rock officials say they were stunned to learn that a meeting had taken place that that towns received a dollar amount they would pay for animal control.
"This is the first time I've heard that number," said Judy Boleman, Flat Rock's zoning administrator.
Village Council members said if they had known, they might well have jumped at the price. No one from the sheriff's department could say whether that arrangement is still available. Since the meeting happened, Sheriff Davis resigned and was replaced by Charlie McDonald.
"The council would welcome any information about this issue," said Councilman Ron Davis. "It's gotten a fair amount of attention, and we would welcome the opportunity to consider whatever proposals are being made."
Councilman Nick Weedman said he hoped to meet with Sheriff McDonald this week.
"Clearly a lot of the municipalities visited with Sheriff Davis about animal control when he was in office," he said. "We just need to do a little bit more snooping. It's just unclear to me what the sheriff expects out of us. We're sort of saying, tell us what the deal is."
The issue is one that the town leaders have been hearing more about.
"I have no idea what we might do," said Councilman Jimmy Chandler. "I think we're going to find a way to fix the issue. I know the mayor is sort of taking lead on this. It's something we need to find a solution for but right now I don't know what the solution is. To me if the sheriff's department already is set up to do this, it makes sense from an efficiency standpoint for them to take care of Flat Rock."
None of the towns that were at last fall's meeting agreed to the sheriff's offer to pay extra for enhanced enforcement in their towns.

Here's a roundup of how Henderson County towns handle animal control.

Laurel Park
"Basically we respond and any assistance we need the county backs us up," said Ball, the Laurel Park town manager. "We handle probably 90 percent of our own complaints."
Laurel Park said no to paying extra because "we didn't need it," he said. "Everything is working fine."

Fletcher
"Typically what happens is for any type of issue or call for service, our police department is dispatched," said town manager Mark Biberdorf. "They go and basically survey the scene" to see if animal control is needed. "If it's a stray dog or nuisance dog and can observe it, they'll call animal control and ask county to dispatch an animal control officer and (the officer) will try and capture the animal and transport it."
"They indicated if there was anything beyond that level (such as trapping and removing animals) there would be a charge for that," he said. If the subject of the complaint is gone when the officer arrives, he does not call for animal control.
"It's worked well for us for quite some time," he said. "The current arrangement works nicely. We try and eliminate opportunities where the animal control officer doesn't necessarily have to come out."

Hendersonville
Hendersonville falls into a different category because it has its own city law governing dog and cat problems.
"We enforce all of our own ordinances as they pertain to animals. We call animal control when the animal itself needs to be seized or dealt with in some way," said city manager Bo Ferguson. "So if we come across an animal that is abused or needing to be seized for some other reason we do call animal control. But other than that we handle all the complaints ourselves — barking dogs, complaints about nuisances, animal welfare. The tethering ordinance especially — anything that is a specific city ordinance that is above and beyond the county ordinance —we handle that and respond to that ourselves and don't ask the county to get involved because it's our law, not theirs."

Mills River
Mills River has something of a hybrid arrangement. While it has no town police department, it contracts with the sheriff for a deputy at a cost of $91,000 a year. When Davis spoke with the towns last year, he said that covered the animal control service. The Mills River deputy handles animal complaints much as town police do, on a first-responder basis.
During the meeting last fall Davis told the town managers that "with animal control we need more people and we not able to cover all the municipalities," said Mills River town manager Jaime Laughter.

Every dog has his day
They have no money and they can't vote, yet dogs make up one of the most powerful constituencies in the county.
In Flat Rock, it is becoming clear that if they want someone to respond to calls about stray dogs, barking dogs or neglected dogs, village leaders will have to pay.
"The reason there is any difference in the county is that we are an incorporated municipality and all the other incorporated municipalities have stepped up to pay for the services they want," said Mary Cervini, who is president of the Community Partnership for Pets and a Flat Rock resident. "They've said we want our own police department because we want extra coverage for our citizens for animals and everything else."
"Mills River incorporated and they realized they didn't want to start their own police department so they upped their ante to get a deputy," she said. "I just think that we just have a lot of people that want the milk and don't want to buy the cow."