South Central Reporter

Macoupin County Board Public Safety Committee met March 4.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

Members Present: Aaron Stayton, Mark Dragovich, Leann Barr, Ross Adden, Jim Ibberson, and Harry Starr

Members Absent: Jon Payne

Officials and Department Heads Present: Aaron Bishop, Emily Gerl, Pete Duncan, and Susan Lewis

1. Call to Order

1.1 Roll Call

There were six members present, with Adden remote, and one absent.

2. Agenda Items

2.1 Request from Animal Control for Dart Gun

Gerl said that she felt that the pros of a dart gun outweighed the cons of getting a dart gun. This would help alleviate many issues with some larger or more violent animals. They would require a vet to prescribe the medicine and then when they wanted to use it, they would call the vet and describe the size of the animal so the vet could tell them how large a dose to use. They was no certification required and a FOID card is all that is required. Gerl felt that only her out of the Animal Control department should use it. There were some questions about the liability of the use, proper reporting of any use of it, how often did they anticipate using it, and the cost of the gun, darts, and the medicine. The committee decided to discuss this again next month after discussing with the State's Attorney and developing a policy for the use of it.

2.2 Animal Control HVAC Update

Gerl said that Armour had brought Kufa's out and the HVAC system was working properly now.

2.3 Emergency 911 Board Meetings and Communications Between Both Groups

Stayton said he just wanted to try and have a little better communication between the committee and the E911 board. Ibberson said since he sits on the Board he could also try and keep the Board updated.

2.4 Road Sign Upgrades and How to Pay for Them in Future Bishop walked through how the Board had handled the replacement of the road signs throughout the county. They had started with the state route intersections, all the materials for that were ready except for the Route 111 which would be finished soon. They would then go up. The next area would be the listing that he had gotten from the Highway Department of county maintained roads. After that, they would then begin working on the remaining township roads. They would also hopefully come up with a way to fund these upgrades in the future on an ongoing basis to avoid having to do the whole county at once.

2.5 Animal Control Budget

Stayton said that going forward he would like to do reviews of the animal control budget to try and monitor it and help with budget formulation with the Finance committee.

2.6 Animal Control Reporting

Stayton had put together these charts of history of animal control statistics based off the monthly report. The big issue seemed to be the revenue coming in and the lack of rabies tag fee being collected. The committee felt that there should be significantly more revenue from the rabies tags. This increase in rabies tags would benefit the department overall and the committee though that next month they would discuss potentially sending a letter to veterinarians to see about getting more compliance with collection of rabies tags.

3. Adjournment

3.1 Adjourn Meeting

Motion by Barr, seconded by Starr to adjourn at 5:39 pm. All in favor. Motion carried.

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