Wasilla changes dog catchers

WASILLA -- Wasilla's vicious dogs, stray cats and wandering horses are now the city of Houston's problem.

This week, as its contract with the Mat-Su Borough expired, the city of Wasilla agreed to pay Houston $26,000 for a year's worth of on-call animal control services. The mayor of both cities say the next few months will be sort of a test run.

"On a monthly basis I'll be making reports as we get an idea of exactly what types of calls we're going to get," Houston Mayor Dale Adams said. In addition, Adams said, he will inform Wasilla of how much those calls are costing.

This will be one of the primary advantages of signing on with their neighbor city, according to Wasilla Mayor Dianne Keller. Wasilla's primary complaint with the borough has been that animal control wasn't able to provide detailed, accurate statistics as to where, when and how it responded to calls in the city. By getting a baseline on the city's animal problems, Wasilla officials say, they will have a better idea of what is a fair contract price.

There may be other benefits as well, according to Keller.

"I think the response time may change for the better," she said. She said borough animal control has been stretched too thin, whereas Houston is dealing with a much smaller area and fewer calls.

Although the Houston officer will have to drive about 15 miles to Wasilla, Adams said the goal will be to respond to emergencies immediately and other calls within four hours. The area between the two cities will continue to be the Mat-Su Borough's jurisdiction.

Houston started its own animal control program about a year ago as dog problems were increasing. Houston officials said the borough's $36,000 asking price for animal control services was cost prohibitive. Instead, Adams says, the city is able to deal with its stray and nuisance animals at an annual cost of around $10,000.

Houston does not have a full-time patrol officer but instead a part-time employee who responds to calls when needed. At the same time, Houston does not have a large kennel facility so instead takes most of its stray dogs to a private kennel near Wasilla where the city pays to have them housed until their owners are located or they are adopted out.

Adding Wasilla to their response area will most likely mean adding another part-time person and using an additional private kennel, Adams said, but he said it will take a month or two for Houston to get a handle on the types and number of calls Wasilla will have.

The Wasilla City Council's unanimous support of the contract came with little discussion or comment at this week's meeting, but was preceded by months of contentious debate with Wasilla's former animal control provider -- the Mat-Su Borough.

The borough had proposed upping Wasilla's annual bill from $26,000 to $150,000 and adding a full-time animal control patrol officer. Later that number was dropped to $70,000, but neither Wasilla's city council nor mayor were sold.

"I won't spend one dime more than $26,000," Councilwoman Diana Straub said at an earlier meeting.

City officials maintained that the borough was not able to show Wasilla what it was getting for its money and that there were other problems in the borough's response time and policies.

These concerns are being addressed, according to the borough. Animal control is in the process of getting a new computer software program that will provide better record keeping. At the same time, animal control is polling customers to determine their level of satisfaction with the service and is setting up performance standards for the organization and individual employees.

If all these improvements become a reality and the borough can offer its services for a good price, Mayor Keller said, Wasilla will look at resuming its contract with the borough. But ultimately it will be a matter of who can provide the best service at the lowest cost, she said.

"I doesn't matter to me if it's Houston or the borough," Keller said after last week's meeting.