During the February 14 regular council meeting, Grand Terrace council members along with city staff discussed the motion to authorize the City Manager to execute an agreement between the City of Grand Terrace and City of San Bernardino for animal sheltering services.
Currently, the City of Grand Terrace animal sheltering services is contracted to the County of Riverside, at their Western Riverside County Animal Shelter located at 6851 Van Buren Blvd. Jurupa Valley, CA 92509. However, the distance to the animal shelter from the city is further from the city than the San Bernardino animal shelter.
Mayor Bill Hussey raised concerns about the management of the City of San Bernardino animal shelter from a previous agreement between the two cities due to its poor management. City Manager, Konrad Bolowich, briefed the mayor, “The City of San Bernardino has done a traumatic turnaround with the shelter.”
“The shelter was under the police department and was not really maintained or had the professional staff that an animal shelter requires,” Bolowich continued. “Over the last 5-6 years, the City of San Bernardino has brought in professional animal shelter people. They have a professional crew there. There is a dramatic change and improvement in the quality and the care in what they are doing at the shelter.”
In response to the Mayor’s question of whether the City of San Bernardino animal shelter is a kill shelter or not Bolowich responded with, “San Bernardino does euthanize animals as does Riverside and Redlands.”
Bolowich continued with his response, “to weigh them, the Riverside animal shelter makes it more difficult to surrender an animal. So, if a resident wants to give away their animal, Riverside makes it harder to do that. And what we end up doing is getting animals that are abandoned and we have to impound them, or they are loose and causing a threat to the community. So, the ease of being able to surrender an animal is an important part as well as the distance. Being able to get to a San Bernardino shelter to repatriate your animal versus driving 30-35 minutes to Riverside is a real challenge, and some people are not willing to do that or have the means to do that.”
The contract proposed with the shelter of San Bernardino would be an annual contract that the city could terminate with thirty days notice.
Public comment by Bobby Forbes raised the concern of whether the city was short-staffed in dealing with animal services. Bolowich answered, “This is not a function of staffing. This is a function of the ability to provide this service to the residents and to have efficiency in our staffing. There is no intention of shifting our animal control services to another entity. We get really good service from our staff, and they are invested in the community.”
At the end of the discussion, Mayor Hussey was quoted saying, “The overall big picture here is to be a responsible owner for your pets. Make sure they have a license, a chip, and make sure they have all their shots.”
The motion passed unanimously amongst the council members.