Wednesday, March 19, 2008

130 Animals - $3,700,000 Later


Remember when the McHenry County Board debated whether to abandon the existing Animal Control building off Raffel Road and move to the former State Farm Claims Center in Crystal Lake? The projected cost? $1,700,000 for the building and $2,000,000 to renovate it. Not all Board members agreed on the move and cost, but enough did that it passed.

And now we see, thanks to the Northwest Herald, that this new facility will house only 58 dogs and 72 cats.

Perhaps I missed that in August 2006, when all the excitement (and objections) about the move dominated the news. Our County Board spent $3,700,000 to house 130 animals???

How much has the Board spent to house and rehabilitate the more than 130 homeless men, women and children in McHenry County?

Perhaps the Northwest Herald, which still has wider readership than this online journal, will next report the operating budget of Animal Control: salaries (for how many employees?), business expenses, vehicle expenses (how many vehicles?) and the estimated annual cost of food for these 58 dogs and for 72 cats? Certainly, this is all a public record, because the taxpayers of McHenry County are paying for all of it.

Does Animal Control buy premium, organic food? Or does it buy dry food at the lowest cost? Does it provide tap water for the animals? Or filtered or bottled water? How about for the employees? Tap water?

Perhaps a photo story will follow.

1 comment:

The Madd Bulldog said...

I read your blog generally as entertainment and agree with you about fitty-percent of the time-- Go ahead and attack the politicians, the speeders, the illegal parkers, the corp's who sell tainted pet food, the bullys and neer-do-wells, etc, but leave the animals out of it... you're waaaaaaay outta your league there pal.