By Shannon McFarlin News Director
Paris, Tenn.–At a busy meeting Thursday evening, the Paris City Commission heard from Animal Control Officer Zack Braham about recent updating of procedures at the Paris-Henry County Animal Shelter following the closure of the Henry County Sheriff’s animal shelter and the award of a $150,000 grant from the Best Friends organization for the shelter. This follows a bequest for the shelter from the estate of Dr. Patricia Smith.
Included in the Best Friends award is the requirement that a volunteer program be established for the shelter. With the help of Best Friends, Braham and City Attorney James Smith, a program has been outlined and will be implemented, City Manager Kim Foster said.
Braham said the shelter has involved volunteers previously, but the Best Friends requirement “gave us the opportunity to outline formal procedures” for vetting and accepting volunteers. He said the shelter receives calls just about every day from people wanting to volunteer there.
“People want to play with the animals and we really need more than that from the volunteers,” Foster said. New procedures require training for each volunteer.
With the closure of the sheriff’s animal shelter, Braham, County Mayor Randy Geiger and Sheriff Josh Frey have been working to minimize the impact on the city shelter. She said the city shelter is blessed by having a “great network of rescue groups” that it works with, citing the people from a Pennsylvania rescue group which came here last week and took six animals with them to take to forever homes.
Foster said Geiger discovered a ‘license fee’ which is collected by local vets when rabies vaccines are given and remitted to the county, should be turned over to the city in its entirety. The county will be remitting those collected fees to the city on an annual basis, which should amount to $9,000-$12,000 a year.
–City Commissioner John Etheridge complimented Foster and city workers on preparations for the storms this week.
Foster said the declaration that the storm would be a 5 out of 5 “kicked us into another level. We met with staff ahead of time” and decided what needed to be done, including checking drainage and sweeping streets. “We were preparing for the worst”, she said. “Everyone did an amazing job and I appreciate our staff and how well everyone works together.”
In other business:
–The commission approved the debt obligation for the last closing to close out the BPU’s $4.414M bond anticipation notes for the sewer project.
–Upon recommendation of Fire Chief Jamie Hinson,the commission approved a resolution to revise the city’s advanced life support First Responder agreement.
The city has had the agreement in place with the ambulance service for many years, but because Henry Co. has privatized the ambulance serve and AMR is now the provider, the agreement was updated. Hinson said, “This is virtually just the same agrement, but it’s been updated. Nothing changes, the services and fees are the same.”
Photo: Animal Control Officer Zack Braham gives a report to city officials. Shannon McFarlin.