Limestone commissioners discuss need for new animal shelter; Athens mayor also interested

Jan. 15—ATHENS — Limestone County owns property in Athens that two commissioners suggested would make a good location for an animal shelter, and the city's mayor said he'd be interested in discussing a joint city-county shelter.

The county and Athens have contracted shelter services through Dr. Robert Pitman, 76, in Athens since 2003 for the county and 2006 for the city. The county and city combined paid Pitman about $700,000 in fiscal 2022 to operate his shelter, with the county paying about $558,500 of that.

"The animal shelter has been an issue the last several years," County Engineer Marc Massey said. "I know that the gentleman who's operating it, he'll retire one day. Whenever he decides, we've got to have a plan."

Pitman was unavailable for comment last week.

District 4 County Commissioner LaDon Townsend said property the county owns on North Jefferson Street could be a possible site for a new shelter.

"I think that would be a good spot if we can't find anywhere else to put it," he said. "I'd rather have it a little farther out in the county, but I would be fine with that if that's our only option."

He said the commission should begin considering a shelter before the current contract with Pitman ends at the close of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

"We need to look at it really hard because we don't know where it'll be when this contract gets here," Townsend said. "We need to look at the money and see what it'll cost. We need to really look hard in the next several months."

Since the county currently shares a shelter with Athens, Townsend said he would be interested in sharing a new shelter with the city.

"I think we need to work as a whole county," he said. "Athens is Limestone County, so we need to work together if that's something they're willing to look into."

Athens Mayor Ronnie Marks on Wednesday said discussion with the county about a shelter should probably get underway soon.

"We're going to have a need to find someone to either run a shelter, build a shelter, and whoever operates it, we're going to need a facility," he said. "I would say we probably need to escalate those discussions. It would take 14 (to) 18 months to build a shelter if you started today."

Massey said the commission owns 7 acres at the previous site of L&S Food Market at 1301 N. Jefferson St. The lot is next to Northside Church of Christ and across the street from El Azteca grocery store. Massey said the commission has not yet decided what to do with the property.

"We do have the grading done and we are spreading some rock to give us the ability to have some options," he said. "We would like to set up a recycling drop-off location there ... but it may be that we also have to operate solid waste off the property temporarily till we can find a permanent location."

Massey said the county does not want the site to be an eyesore no matter what it does with the land. The Limestone County Commission last month approved spending $75,000 for improvements to the site, and Massey said the cost could end up significantly less than that amount.

District 2 Commissioner Danny Barksdale made the initial suggestion at the commission's Dec. 19 meeting to consider the North Jefferson Street site for an animal shelter.

Barksdale said his main reason for wanting to build a county shelter is cost. He said he believes the county could run a shelter less expensively than what it is paying Pitman. Barksdale said he would like to have a new shelter in operation before Pitman's contract expires.

Barksdale said he would also be willing to continue sharing a shelter with Athens.

"They use Dr. Pitman just like we do now. That would be on my radar to investigate that," he said.

Harold Wales, Athens City Council president and District 2 councilman, said if the opportunity arose to share a shelter with the county, he would be interested in doing so.

"I would need to sit in and listen to what the future plans would bring," he said. "First is the cost and second would be how is it going to be managed and then third where could it be put, where could it be built at."

Wales said, while he would be interested in hearing a new plan, the city has a good thing going right now.

"It sounds like it's something that I might want to be involved in and approve," he said. "But we've got a good situation here in our city now with Dr. Pitman's services. It's going to take something really good in order to switch that to something else."

A new building means more employees to pay, which increases the cost, Wales said.

"Sure, we could build a building somewhere and run it jointly," he said. "But when you do that, you're talking about probably more people involved and that drives up the cost."

—erica.smith@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2460.