Gail Petras, Middletown’s animal control officer (ACO), and William McKenna, the city’s police chief appealed to the Public Safety Commission (PSC) recently for more ACO staff and other police officers.
According to Chief McKenna, animal complaints have more than doubled over the last couple of years, yet Middletown is still struggling to answer calls with only one full-time and one part-time ACO. Although Petras logs lots of overtime she still can’t handle the volume of calls the department receives and that means police officers have to take up the slack. Last month, over 30 per cent of the animal control calls were handled by patrol officers.
McKenna spoke of the need to be more proactive and mentioned hosting events. Fund raising for animal shelters and animal control services can, with the judicious use of a printing company, be quite successful.
Commission chair, Robert Santangelo indicated that PSC was amicable to hiring more police officers and adding another full-time ACO. Santangelo also said the city was researching its options regarding building its own animal shelter.
Last year a PowerPoint presentation was shown to PSC illustrating both Middletown’s need for a shelter and the potential revenue a shelter could generate. Currently Middletown and Cromwell animals are held in Portland’s regional shelter.
A proposal will be delivered on July 29 to the Finance in Government Committee for another AC officer and to start the ball rolling on the animal shelter.
