Clover to hand over animal control to York County

For years, Clover has been the only York County municipality that handles its own animal control. But town leaders say that’s about to change.

Town Council members last week approved an agreement to turn over animal control services to York County, to be effective May 1. The agreement also must be approved by the York County Council.

Town Manager Allison Harvey said the town needs to make the best use of its staff time and money. “We have determined it was in the best interests of us financially to let the county provide that service for us,” she said.

Animal control involves catching stray animals and driving them to the York County Animal Shelter in York, because Clover doesn’t operate an animal shelter. The service also involves handling complaints from residents about domestic animals.

Harvey said the town’s building official, C.J. Dover, has been handling animal control duties in addition to his code enforcement duties from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday.

The town also had a part-time code enforcement officer who assisted in those duties from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday to Friday, although she said that position has been vacant for the past year.

After normal business hours, when Dover was off duty, Harvey said, “the animal control work either wasn’t getting done, or it was going to our police department.”

Harvey said the town leaders have been discussing the change for some time. Although she said animal control is an important job, the code enforcement and law enforcement officials have other important duties.

“The point is, we weren’t doing it well, because of all the other things that are stacked on the plates of the other employees, and there is a cost to that,” she said.

She said the town responded to 262 animal control calls during 2014, and captured 90 domestic animals. She estimates that a town employee drove to York County Animal Control for 80 percent of those animals, or an estimated 72 trips.

The 2014 numbers were lower than the two previous years.

In 2013, when the town’s part-time code enforcement officer job was filled, she said, the town answered 767 animal control calls, captured 302 animals and made an estimated 241 trips to animal control in York.

In 2012, the town responded to 562 animal control calls, captured 273 animals and made an estimated 218 trips to animal control in York.

Harvey said the county can handle animal control at no cost to the town, which will enable Dover to focus on code enforcement and police to focus on law enforcement.

In the past, she said, “there were many times when he couldn’t do building official business because he was called to investigate why someone’s dog was running down the road.”

Eric Rekitt, York County assistant director of public works, said the county already handles animal control in unincorporated areas around Clover, so it won’t be a problem to add the incorporated area.

“We’re equipped to provide the services they need,” Rekitt said. “We are adequately staffed to handle that.”

Rekitt said York County breaks animal control up into six service areas, including a Clover area that has not previously included the town of Clover.

He said the county takes animal control calls from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday and has on-call officers for emergencies only after those hours.

Rekitt said an emergency call includes cases such as an injured or vicious animal. Non-emergency cases are handled during the next business hours, he said.

Harvey said the town wanted to wait until May 1 to turn the service over to York County to give leaders time to educate residents about the change.

She also said the county might have a longer response time for calls.

“The only loss is that many people have come to expect a level of service that, ‘I call and I want someone out here immediately,’” Harvey said. “And we have been able to provide that over the years, but it is getting more and more difficult.”

This story was originally published March 16, 2015 at 11:22 AM with the headline "Clover to hand over animal control to York County."