In the first three months of operation, the new DeKalb Animal Shelter has provided forever homes for 89 animals adopted so far, almost one per day.
With full-time Director Megan Moore and part/time assistant James Wilkerson, it has become quite a handful keeping everything going as the new shelter is filled to capacity. During last week’s monthly meeting of the Smithville Mayor and Alderman, the DeKalb Animal Coalition formerly asked for more help.
“We are asking and kind of begging to make him (Wilkerson) a full-time employee. We don’t want to lose him but we’re liable to if we can’t give him full-time employment,” said DeKalb Animal Coalition’s Sue Puckett.
The previous animal shelter was only a sixth of the size of the current facility. In addition to just picking up animals, the current facility is working to become a fully state-certified entity which requires more training, adherence to state guidelines and practices but would also make it eligible for state monies as they were available. All of this takes manpower, which the current facility doesn’t have.
State money would be very helpful in accomplishing all the goals of the shelter, which is limited on funds.
In addition to paying the employees, the city appropriated $75,000 to help build the shelter and the county also put in $75,000 for the construction.
“We were hoping $150,000 would build it but it did not. Our board has raised and spent $144,531 in addition to the $150,000. We owe $33,000 of that because we had to borrow some money. We didn’t have enough. Of course, we’re having to pay interest on that. I think we have $3,000 in the bank. We’re low on funds,” said Puckett.
Volunteers have come forward and shown interest in the program, but according to Moore before they make more headway on that front a volunteer coordinator should be put in place so the system for more volunteers is on pause at the moment. Every volunteer must receive training, orientation and right now Moore is stretched thin taking care of the day-to-day operations seven days a week.
“As of right now we’re still looking for a coordinator,” Moore said. “We’ve got couple people who are interested and in the beginning stages of developing an interactive calendar where people can sign up for their own days. That way it’s not as much on me having to call everybody and asking what days can you work this month. We have 100 volunteers that are signed up, but I don’t have the time to manage it so we have to find a more efficient way of doing that.
“We have not had official volunteer orientation where we go over everything. People have the volunteer handbook,” said Moore, who had the first volunteer orientation Monday, Feb.12, at Smithville City Hall. The next orientation will be held Thursday, Feb. 22, at Smithville City Hall, 2nd Floor, 6 p.m. Future orientations will be held once each month (based on need) beginning in March.
Anyone interested in becoming a coordinator can call Moore to talk one-on-one and discuss the opportunity. The shelter is still taking applications for volunteers during the organizational phase. You can contact the shelter at 615-597-1363 or by email at DACShelter@gmail.com.
Another way volunteers can help is to become foster families for animals needing a home. Animal foster families work much like they do with children, in they take in an animal for a period of time and care for it so it becomes social and used to a home environment helping make for a smooth transition when the animal is adopted.
“The foster program takes a little more vetting,” said Moore. “Currently we have three foster families but are accepting applications for more. We like to do a home visit and pair the animals with the proper environment where they can thrive.”
As for whether approval for Wilkerson to become full time is ahead, the mayor and aldermen decided to schedule a workshop to determine the actual cost to the city before acting on the animal coalition’s request.
