Keeping it civil: Lyndhurst animal shelter could soon change fees for impoundment, civil penalties
Staunton, Augusta County and Waynesboro could soon be finalizing updates to their respective animal ordinances that would include impoundment fees for animals that are brought to the Shenandoah Valley Animal Services Center by animal control.
The three localities likely won't approve the new ordinances until at least late August, as the three jurisdictions try to make sure that their policies will be uniform when it comes to animals that have been impounded.
The discussion was a large part of the SVASC owners' meeting on Tuesday afternoon. Staunton city manager Leslie Beauregard, Waynesboro city manager Mike Hamp, and Augusta County administrator Tim Fitzgerald discussed some of the updates that would be necessary.
What is the impoundment fee?
The impoundment fee would be $15 if the animal is reclaimed within 24 hours, and $35 if the animal is claimed after those first 24 hours. Those numbers come from calculations done by SVASC's executive director Jon Hilbert and Fitzgerald, as well as communicating with other animal shelters in Virginia.
The fee would be separate from proposed civil penalties for charges like unlicensed dogs or animals running at large. There are no plans for an additional per day fee for the animal. Other charges could include actual costs incurred for a specific animal, like veterinarian or grooming bills.
According to SVASC's executive director Jon Hilbert, a majority of animals are reclaimed within the first three days after being caught running at large. Hilbert recounted one instance where a cat was brought in and stayed at the shelter for a month before being reclaimed. Stray holds are limited to ten days, and those situations would be treated as new adoptions rather than reclamations.
No animal will be kept at the shelter if the owner comes to reclaim it. The hope, according to Fitzgerald and Beauregard, is that residents can either pay the fee when they pick up the animal at the shelter, or be issued a bill with directions of how to pay.
Hamp brought up one possible issue with accepting payments at the shelter for residents who can't pay their fines and fees right away. According to Fitzgerald, the money would be put into the animal shelter's own bank account, and the money collected by municipality could be deducted from contributions made by each locality. But with the issuance of bills, some work remains about where those bills would be paid. Fitzgerald said those issues would be tackled once the new ordinances were in place.
Where is each locality on their animal ordinance?
Augusta County is close to finalizing their ordinance to send to public hearing, as the item is scheduled for Wednesday night's board of supervisors meeting. The one missing element in that ordinance was the inclusion of a possible impoundment fee.
The county based their new ordinance off of Staunton's current ordinance to bring the two in uniform. Staunton's only change to their animal ordinance would be to include language about the impoundment fee. The city has not yet had a formal discussion on the ordinance.
Waynesboro has not followed that same model, but Hamp said that falling in line with the other two localities could be achievable. Their violations for animals running at large are still criminal violations, as compared to the civil penalties in the proposed update in Augusta County and the current city code in Staunton. Hamp wasn't comfortable sharing where the city was in their process, but said that the proposed impoundment fees and civil penalties could be included in their discussion. He called the proposed changes a "simplified and logical approach to fees." Their next city council meeting is not scheduled until August 28.
Fitzgerald said that he would try to have the board of supervisors hold off on sending their ordinance to public hearing until he had heard back from Beauregard and Hamp about their councils' reactions to the impoundment fee.
What would a civil penalty structure look like?
Charges for unlicensed dogs and dogs running at large will now be considered civil violations. This includes charges for dogs who have not had their shots caught running at large.
There is now a fee structure for those civil violations. For the first offense, unlicensed dogs carry a $10 fine, running at large is $25, and non-inoculated dogs running at large is $50. Those fines all increase on repeat offenses. Violators must obtain proper licensing or rabies shot certification.
—Akhil Ganesh is the Government Reporter at The News Leader. You can contact him at aganesh@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @akhildoesthings.
This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Lyndhurst animal shelter change fees for impoundment, civil penalties
