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Commissioners approve temporary hire for Lincoln County animal shelter manager, paid from PILT
Summary
The board approved hiring an animal shelter manager for the remainder of the fiscal year to address safety and staffing shortfalls; the position will be paid from PILT funds now and considered for the FY26–27 budget if revenue-generation goals are met.
Lincoln County commissioners voted to hire a manager for the county animal shelter and to fund the remainder of the current fiscal-year cost from PILT (payments in lieu of taxes). Health Department staff described unsafe working conditions, insufficient staffing and building deficiencies that have left part-time employees responsible for daily care and hazardous animal handling.
Health Department speaker Miss Hooper said the shelter currently depends on three part-time staffers and that ‘‘it’s really an unsafe work environment’’ when employees must handle animals alone. She told the board a short-term manager would cost about $19,600 for the rest of this budget year and outlined a job description in which the manager would pursue sustainable revenue sources and grant funding to make the position self-supporting.
Commissioners discussed funding and staffing trade-offs and acknowledged the need to move promptly to reduce safety risk and to support planned facility improvements. A motion to hire the manager, with initial funding from PILT for the remainder of the year and evaluation for inclusion in the FY26–27 budget, was moved and seconded and approved by the board.
The county will expect the new manager to pursue revenue-generating services (microchip and vaccination clinics, transports, grant applications) and report back to commissioners as the department fits the position into the regular budget cycle. Miss Hooper cited revenue comparisons from nearby nonprofit and county shelters to justify potential upside, noting nearby shelters bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in some cases.
