News Photo by Kayla Wikaryasz On Wednesday, the Alpena County Board of Commissioners are seen participating in their last full board meeting of the year. Alpena County Sheriff Erik Smith gave a presentation of updates to the Alpena County Animal Control Shelter.

ALPENA — On Wednesday, Alpena County Board of Commissioners voted to appoint an animal control manager for the Alpena County Animal Control Shelter, and to begin the search for a new Alpena County Animal Control officer.

In an Alpena County Sheriff’s Office press release on Thursday, the office announced that they hired Amanda Rodriguez as the new Alpena County shelter manager.

Alpena County Sheriff Erik Smith requested approval from the commissioners, at their last full board meeting of the year, to move forward with staffing actions following the resignation of three individuals that were employed at the shelter.

These resignations also follow the recent termination of the county’s animal control officer, Michele Reid, which occurred in November.

Smith told The News that staffing has been a “revolving door” since 2017 at the Alpena County Animal Control.

“We always find people,” Smith said, adding that hiring new shelter technicians is “not going to be a hard task.”

Undersheriff Cash Kroll told The News that the Sheriff’s Office’s goal is to have the shelter fully staffed again by January.

Currently, Kroll said that as of Thursday, the shelter is currently sheltering nine dogs and three cats.

Kroll added that in the meantime, while they look to fill the vacant shelter technician positions, there are volunteers that will help maintain daily shelter duties.

At the board meeting on Wednesday, Smith explained that one employee remains, who’s only been at the shelter for “maybe a month.” He said that she has previous experience working in an animal shelter.

“She was there for the animals, and didn’t want to get involved with any of the drama,” Smith added. “Was very objective in her thinking, she didn’t want to take sides, she was there for the animals.”

Smith said this individual has “already brought to our attention things that need to be fixed.”

Moving forward, Smith said that the board has an opportunity to develop or redevelop an animal control program as to “how we all want it and what we see fit.”

He told the board that his suggestion was to keep the animal control officer and the shelter manager roles separate.

“Going forward, we need to separate the shelter and the animal control officer,” Smith said. “I don’t think they should be combined. There should be two different parts.”

Smith also alluded to the potential of building relationships with other animal shelters in the county.

“I foresee in the future, with the right person in there, a lot of the partnerships with the Humane Society, Second Chance … just a smiling face and having sit down conversations, objective conversations, will go a long way with those partnerships,” Smith added.

The county used to contract with the Huron Humane Society for animal control services.

Alpena County Board of Commissioners Chairman John Kozlowski stated that he agrees that the animal control officer and shelter manager should be two separate positions.

“Give the individual that’s the animal control the job to go out there and investigate that stuff while we have someone in the shelter … working with volunteers, trying to get more volunteers,” Kozlowski said. “I don’t think we can go much lower than what’s going on.”

The press release states that the shelter manager position will start out as an hourly, part-time position though could change contingent upon restructuring of the Alpena County Animal Control program and the Alpena County Animal Control Shelter.

“While the custody of the animals within the shelter will remain of the utmost importance, Alpena County is looking to ensure that shelter practices are financially sound for taxpayers,” the release states. “With these changes, the county is also excited to work hand-in-hand with other local shelters to achieve one common goal, and to rebuild partnerships within the community.”

During the meeting on Wednesday, Smith stated that he suggests employing someone for the animal control officer role who is a certified police officer so that the individual can proceed with necessary criminal actions in regards to animal abuse, neglect, et cetera.

He stated that the state law, which requires counties to have an animal control program, does not specify to what extent animal control officers should be certified police officers.

“You can hire a civilian person, a noncertified police officer,” Smith explained. “The only problem with that, they don’t have the capability of misdemeanors or felonies.”

He also said that when a certified police officer is dealing with the public, through the role of the animal control officer, there is more credibility.

The board made a motion to approve Smith’s hiring of a shelter manager and to begin the search for a new animal control officer.

County Commissioner Brenda Fournier asked Smith how the shelter was doing financially.

“We’re not doing well,” Smith said.

He explained that the shelter budget has not been managed properly over the years and that now “we have a new treasurer who’s doing it correctly.”

Cindy Cebula, county treasurer, clarified and said that the shelter has been running on a deficit “since the beginning.”

“Next year, we’re going to try and get it right,” Smith said.

Fournier suggested to Smith to consider building a program that will allow inmates at the jail to pick up some of the duties of caring for animals at the shelter. She said that this type of program may lessen the burden of the shelter tasks on employees and volunteers.

Smith agreed with Fournier, but said that such a program would be a “down the road thing,” though the program would have secondary benefits in potentially improving the mental health of inmates.

At the conclusion of Smith’s presentation, Fournier said that she thinks that the shelter is headed in the right direction.

Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.