Lane County pink slips delivered
Reported by: Nohelani Graf
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Last Update: 7:11 am
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Animal Idol
Animal Idol
Eugene (KMTR) - All 16 employees of Lane County Animal Services were handed pink slips Tuesday. Under Lane County’s new budget proposal L.C.A.S. will not get the $585,000 it needs to operate, and is slated for a shutdown.
Kennel manager Tom Howard says Health and Human Services delivered the notices, effective May 29th, 2008, for his entire staff Tuesday afternoon. Howard believes the pink slips are the county's way of getting people prepared for a closure. However, Howard says until the Lane County commissioners adopt the new budget in May nothing is set in stone and his employees are not going anywhere.
“We’re not going to throw in the towel; we have a job to do. We provide a service to Lane County and we'll do it to the last day, if there is a last day.” Howard said.
The budget proposal calls for L.C.A.S. to stop taking animals on May 29th and transfer the ones they do have to other humane societies and possibly other counties in Oregon. After that date it will be up to individual cities to handle animal control and provide a shelter.
The cities of Springfield and Eugene currently contract the county to provide animal services. Neither city has a back up plan yet, but both will meet with county commissioners to discuss their options in early May.
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