Jul. 31—ATHENS — Volunteers say the privately owned Athens Limestone Animal Shelter is in such poor condition that it is hard on animals, but city and county officials who outsourced shelter obligations to its owner say they have no ability to force him to make repairs.

The shelter, which last week held 62 dogs and 61 cats, is owned by veterinarian Dr. Robert Pitman, who has had a contract with the county since 2003 and with Athens since the city closed its own shelter in 2006. The shelter is located at 1701 U.S. 72 E.

The city and county combined pay Pitman about $700,000 a year to operate his shelter.

Pitman said the 25-year-old building has relatively minor maintenance issues, that sheltering the animals is the city's legal responsibility and that building a new facility should likewise be undertaken by the city.

Amanda Homelvig has volunteered at the shelter for a year and a half and said the shelter is an old building that is insufficient for the shelter's needs.

"There's animals everywhere. There's puppies in the laundry room, there's puppies in the bathroom, there are cats lined up and stacked in the hallway," she said. "The place is bursting at the seams."

Homelvig said ongoing maintenance problems are bad for the animals, as well as for staff and volunteers.

"It seems like the air conditioning is always out. I know a unit was replaced last year, but not only is it horrible for the animals, it's horrible for the people working there," she said.

She said maintenance problems at the shelter are constant.

"It's something every time I go in to volunteer. One day the drains were backed up, the entire back portion of the kennels," she said. "We try to get them outside the kennel twice a day ... and if the drain is backed up you can't get dogs in and out."

There is a faucet that constantly runs hot water, Homelvig said. She said it has been fixed multiple times by employees' husbands and other people the employees know.

Pitman, director of the nonprofit Athens-Limestone Animal Shelter Inc., said he has considered building a new shelter but there is too much uncertainty on continuation of his contracts with the city and county.

"With the uncertainty and the unstable thing, I'm not going to build a $2 million building and then give it to the city," he said. "The city should build a building, but (me paying for) a $2 million building is not the answer."

Pitman, 76, said even if he knew he would continually get contracts with the city and county, he is not interested in constructing another facility.

"I don't see any reason for me to build a new building to provide a city-guaranteed service. Because it's a state law that every municipality greater than 2,500 people maintain a shelter," he said.

Both counties and cities have obligations to provide a shelter under Alabama law: "It shall be the duty of each and every county in the state to provide a suitable county pound and impounding officer for the impoundment of dogs and cats found running at large ... . Every municipality with a population over 5,000 in which the county pound is not located shall maintain a suitable pound or contribute their pro rata share to the staffing and upkeep of the county pound."

Volunteer Phyllis Condon spoke at a City Council meeting this month on behalf of shelter volunteers who said the building is in poor shape and needs repairs. The volunteers said there are holes in the ceiling, the roof is leaking and the air conditioning is inadequate.

"I go back there in the back (of the shelter) to give the dogs treats and it's hot. I'm like, this is ridiculous. So, I start asking. Well, the A/C is out back here. What? And the roof is leaking. ... So, I start getting upset," Condon said.

Pitman said there are no major maintenance issues at his facility. He said the roof is not leaking and, as far as he knows, there are no holes in the ceiling. Pitman said last year he put in a $16,000 air conditioning and heating unit in the back of the building.

"As much as the doors are open back there, it's hard to keep it cool," he said. "When it's 100 degrees outside it's hard to get it much below 83 or 84 in the summertime. ... The HVAC people tell me the units will only cool to 17 degrees cooler than the outside temperature. That's if all the doors stay closed."

Pitman said the only current maintenance needed that he is aware of is repairing some gates and cages. He said he is currently having those things fixed.

Contracts

The volunteers' frustration is as much with the city and county as it is with Pitman.

The city's contract with Pitman expires in December. It was a three-year contract which averaged $143,000 per year. Pitman currently has a $558,487 one-year contract with the county which expires in September.

The county's contracts with Pitman have increased annually since at least 2019, totaling $215,627 more for 2022 than 2019.

Neither the city's nor the county's contracts with Pitman require that Pitman maintain the building, although the city's contract requires Pitman to "humanely house all animals."

Condon said there is a desperate need to have the building fixed. She said Pitman's contracts with the city and county should require that he maintain the facility.

"Most contracts you take out, whether it be city, county or whatever, you would think there would be a maintenance clause in there. That the people who own the building would take care of the building," Condon said.

Chris Seibert, City Council president and District 1 councilman, said they always look at the contract at renewal time to see if changes need to be made.

"Since things have been brought to our attention, we'll certainly look at it and see if it's worded right, if we're doing everything the right way," he said. "I'm not saying we will add things but we'll definitely look at it and see if it's still relevant."

Collin Daly, chairman of the Limestone County Commission, said there is nothing about maintenance in the county's contract with the shelter.

"We have nothing to do with the building, day-to-day operations, no ties to the building or anything in that form or fashion," he said. "There may be some issues out there but that's a private company, a private individual that we give an appropriation to. They have a contract with the county."

Daly said he would like to see financial records before allotting any additional money.

"Before I give another penny to it, I'd want to see a complete audit of every dime that's spent out there and every dime that comes in," Daly said.

Options limited

Athens Mayor Ronnie Marks said the city has offered the position to other veterinarians in years past but there is never any interest from anyone other than Pitman.

"That's been an issue that we have been concerned about for a number of years. We even made personal phone calls to quite a few of the vets and they just did not verbally express any interest," Marks said. "We just haven't had any success in bidding that contract. Hopefully, this year as we look at the next two or three months maybe we can have more people interested."

Pitman said he plans to renew his contracts with the city and county this year.

"Nobody else wants to do it. And they won't provide the level of care that we provide," he said.

Beverly Billions is a volunteer at the shelter's Paws and Claws Thrift Store which provides additional funds for the shelter.

She said she is not surprised that no one else wants to take over.

"That's 24-hour-a-day care. No other vet will help with cheaper vetting, nobody else wants it. But the city could do it on their own. Get a building, hire a director, they already have animal control," Billions said. "So, they do have a choice. They just don't want to fool with it."

Billions said the fault lies with the city and county, not Pitman.

"Nobody else would do it, so how can we beat the guy who has," she said. "No one else will even try. No one else even wants anything to do with it."

Billions said the city has had 16 years "to redo this and build a shelter, do something different. But yet all they'll do is complain about how much money they're giving but then they won't do anything."

Seibert said each time the contract is renewed, no one but Pitman is interested. While the public is concerned, he said, "people who are actually equipped to deal with it and bid on it" are not.

New shelter proposed

Condon believes the city and county should buy an existing building to use as a new shelter.

"I know they're not cheap; I know they're not. But considering what they pay yearly to Dr. Pitman, to me they could pay outright for a building and just own it. Eventually it would pay for itself," she said.

Seibert said at the council meeting that finding a veterinarian is not the only issue.

"It's not just the vet, it's the facility. The facility's the real expensive part," he said.

Seibert said the city has not really thought about having its own building.

"We would prefer to keep it contracted just because it's one more facility we have to keep up, spend the money on. We've done that in the past, that's before I was on the council, but I've heard nothing but bad things when we did it. Just the upkeep and I guess there's just a lot of things, you've got to have a vet on staff, you've got to do all these things."

"It's one more line item that you have to add under the government," Seibert said. "But we've got to address it one way or another."

Homelvig said Athens' growing population makes it especially important that the animal shelter is adequate.

"It's definitely in the best interest of the public to have a well-run facility that meets the needs ... and Athens is growing," she said. "I think this piece of public health and public welfare needs to grow with it."

Marks said the city and county need to evaluate any change in how animals are sheltered.

"You've got to look at what options we have available and I'm not sure that there's many options out there," he said. "Is there another facility? Do we look at building a facility?"

Marks said the city and county should work together.

"I want to give services to it the best we can for the city and county. I think somewhere in here there needs to be a joint effort in what direction we go."

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