New chief takes helm with hands-on approach

MAT-SU -- Don't be surprised if, while you're perusing the pet aisle for a rawhide chew for your favorite pooch, you're asked how the Mat-Su Borough Animal Care and Regulation office can better meet your needs.

That's just Dave Allison's way of keeping in touch with the community -- and it's one of several methods he hopes will help him overcome some big hurdles as the new chief officer of Animal Care.

Allison, who started his position Nov. 1, used the pet food aisles as a way to gauge the community's perception of borough animal care before he took the job as chief.

In his hometown of Madras, Ore., about 5,000 strong, Allison served as a school resource officer through the sheriff's office. He also worked as a tribal law enforcement officer on the Warm Springs Reservation and as a Madras city policeman, a law enforcement career totaling 18 years. But after having served on Elmendorf in the 1980s, Allison said happy to move back to Alaska, and it fits in well with his family, as his wife has family members who live in the state as well.

Despite a few moving problems, Allison has enjoyed the time in the community and said he looks forward to tackling a few issues in the department.

"It's nice to be in an area that has goals that are reachable," Allison said. "I like being in a position where there's something to be accomplished."

Although the majority of Allison's career has been in law enforcement, he said his focus has been on community service -- and added that he's no stranger to working with animals.

"Central Oregon is a rural community," Allison said, explaining that, while there, his family had raised or been in contact with most domestic animals found at Alaskans' homes.

While on the Warm Springs law enforcement team, Allison said he helped set up an animal control shelter, staffed with an animal control officer. Although different from the borough shelter, was a big step for the tribe.

Allison said he hopes to make bigger advances at the borough shelter. In talking with the community before his hire and since, two significant areas have come up time and again as areas the borough needs to focus on to make animal care effective in the Valley. Those, Allison said, are community education about both general pet care and the borough's animal care codes, and the division's response to calls or community concerns.

The first, Allison said, he hopes to overcome through being more visible in the community. He's looking forward to getting in touch with businesses and community members. He's also looking for more volunteers -- people in all fields are needed, he said, from people who can type and file or design a good Web site to people who can walk dogs and pet cats.

"People have a perception that, if you volunteer in this agency, you have to go out and clean kennels," Allison said. He said people with computer skills, landscaping knowledge and other talents are all welcome at the shelter, in addition to people that want to help socialize the animals.

"I want people, when they walk into this building, to feel like they're walking into a friend's house, and to make the animals comfortable, too," Allison said.

The other side of the coin, Allison said, is response to the community. At this point, he said, officers have four weeks of backlogged calls -- partially the result of illness, staffing changes, and a caseload of more than 10,000 contacts yearly spread among about three people. It's a situation he called unacceptable.

"We need to take care of the day-to-day needs, not call us this week and you'll see us next week," Allison said. "I want people to feel that we're there for them."

Part of his plan includes more training, filling vacant positions, more staffing and additional equipment, items that will be showing up in his budget proposal next year. In the meantime he's asking officers to step up to the plate and work as hard as possible to meet the needs of the community. And Allison said he won't be standing by on the sidelines watching it happen.

"I'm a mover and a shaker, I don't like staying in a stale place," Allison said. "… I think I owe it to the community that takes care of me and my family to take care of it."