Meade County approves animal-shelter contract, adds full-time animal-control officer

Meade County Fiscal Court voted to accept the lowest responsive bid for a new animal-control building and authorized the judge executive to sign the contract, and the court approved creation of a new full-time animal-control officer position to relieve workload on the director and deputy.

The court’s judge described a public bid opening held Aug. 22 that drew seven bidders and said the apparent low base bid read into the record was $2,385,000 with an alternate bid of $147,000. The county explained the building requires specialized, nonpermeable materials, upgraded HVAC and exhaust systems, and a larger septic system because of the facility’s daily waste load, which the judge said makes the project costlier than a typical county building. The court also noted plans to pursue cost savings through county purchases of materials and community fundraising by PINS and others.

Separately, the court addressed persistent staffing and operational problems at the animal shelter, including burnout among supervisors and a lack of coverage that has left employees on extended call. The judge proposed splitting supervisory ACO duties out of the director role and creating a career ladder: tech roles, ACO officer (grade 12), deputy director and director (grade 17). The court voted to add one full-time animal-control officer, approved the job description and amended the pay scale accordingly. The record shows the court directed staff to return with the necessary job-description paperwork and pay-scale amendments to implement the hire.

What the court said and next steps Shannon Slack, president of PINS (a local animal-welfare nonprofit), told the court the shelter is seeing increased intake and that PINS has been covering spay/neuter costs; the organization urged stable funding and options including earmarking adoption fees, opening a resale store to raise revenue, or increasing county funding. The court thanked PINS and said it would continue to explore facility-sharing and other funding avenues.

The county said it will proceed with contract paperwork for construction and with the administrative steps required to post and fill the new ACO position. No construction start date was given; the contract award authorizes the judge to sign but does not itself state a project timeline in the meeting record.

Clarifying details - Bid amounts read aloud in meeting: base bid $2,385,000; alternate $147,000. The meeting transcript includes a garbled stated total and did not provide a clear single-line total; the article reports the two amounts as read. (source: judge’s bid announcement) - County staff said materials and septic size are major cost drivers and that some savings will come from tax-exempt purchases through partner organizations and county work on paving and site prep. (source: judge/staff comments)

Ending Court members approved the contract award and the staffing changes by voice vote. Staff were instructed to complete contract signatures and the administrative steps to post the new ACO position.