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Assistant town clerk asks to be designated enforcement agent to boost dog-registration compliance
Summary
The assistant town clerk told the Select Board about roughly 160 unrenewed dog registrations and asked to be named a designated enforcement agent to perform door-to-door registrations and issue tickets if necessary; the board discussed safety and preferred a door-knock-and-follow-up approach.
At the meeting the Assistant Town Clerk (Speaker 1) asked the Select Board to designate her as an enforcement official under the animal-control ordinance so she could go door-to-door to register dogs and, if necessary, issue tickets for noncompliance.
The clerk outlined the registration process and statutory fee distribution: the transcript records that the state collects $7 per license and that "they take 4 of those dollars and put it towards a state neutering program" while the other $3 is split for rabies-control and administrative purposes. The clerk said about 160 dogs remained unrenewed and that staff incur postage and labor costs when registrations are mailed. "My hope, my sincerest hope is that I wouldn't have to write a single [ticket]," the assistant clerk said, adding that outreach would be the preferred first step.
Board members discussed alternatives and safety: some members supported door-to-door outreach but cautioned that showing up with a ticket book could escalate encounters. The chief (via comment in the record) and the manager said a door-knock followed by police follow-up for noncompliant households would likely be more effective and safer. The board did not take a formal vote to appoint the clerk as an enforcement officer at this meeting, but members agreed to pursue a door-to-door outreach approach and invited interested citizens to apply for a future animal-control officer vacancy.
