The Allen County Landfill is going to the dogs and Bill King isn’t a bit happy about it.
King, director of Public Works, told county commissioners Tuesday morning that dogs were being dumped near the landfill with increasing regularity.
“We can’t let them stay there” King said. “They like to dig in the garbage.”
Commissioner Gary McIntosh said he thought the dogs were left in the landfill’s vicinity, less than two miles from the new Allen County Rescue Facility, because of the $20 charge for drop-offs.
King said coyotes also have become a nuisance. He once enlisted sheriff’s deputies to dispatch coyotes that were pawing at refuge in broad daylight.
McIntosh said he thought abandoned dogs should be taken to ACARF and the county absorb the cost until a less expensive arrangement could be worked out with the shelter, which he “thinks will happen.”
COMMISSIONERS dealt with several other issues on their relatively light agenda.
— Ron Boren of Boren Roofing, Iola, said he would repair damage to the roof of the small building housing the old courthouse clock on the south side of the courthouse lawn. Iola Rotary Club members intend to paint and spruce up the building, with a water-tight roof a prerequisite.
— Public Works employees will clean out an unused warehouse now owned by the county that’s part of the old Heartland Electric complex in the 400 block of North State Street. McIntosh said he had had an intriguing inquiry about the building from an Iolan who proposed starting a business in it. No details are yet ready for public consumption, he said.
— The bridge on old U.S. 169, just north of the Allen-Neosho counties line, may be open by Thanksgiving, Commissioner Dick Works said. Works said the project foreman told him Monday that asphalt approaches to the bridge’s recently poured concrete deck would be installed this week.
— All but just under 1.9 percent of 2009’s property taxes have been collected, Treasurer Sharon Utley told commissioners. She said $275,497.75 remained outstanding on a beginning abstract of $14,021,257.02. Last year’s delinquency on Nov. 1 was 2.4 percent and was 2.3 percent and 1.8 percent the two previous years. Allen County collects all property taxes and then distributes the money to cities, school districts and Allen County Community College.
