To the Editor, I am forwarding a copy of my response to Ms. Rita Pruett which was sent January 27, 2010.

Rita,

Sorry for the delay. I did ask the public for their thoughts on the stray dog problem. I got three e-mails, five letters and a few people that came by the office. I looked at what White County had spent and what they budget for a year. I spoke with the city of Spencer as they too were looking at the problem.

After realizing the cost I also spoke with Warren County to see if we could do anything with them. The budget for White county is $80,000.00 a year. The start-up cost for equipment housing not including disposal is $169,000.00 .

While they are some small grants available for operation, I have found no funding source at this time.

The County had to make cuts last year to make our budget work. No new services or programs were funded. If the county did this alone it would cost .12 cent increase in taxes and between 3.6 and 5.7 cent increase in yearly operational cost. The debt service could be spread out over four years for construction cost. However it would still cost a 3.1 cent increase.

On the low side 6.7 high side 8.8 cent increase or $93,800 to $123,800.00 in new funding. I'm still looking for funding and hope that we can work something out with the city to try and resolve this problem. It is a problem I deal with almost every week if not at the office on my farm.

I thank you for your support on this issue and ask that you speak to Rip and David as well. Rita, I waited to reply to you in hopes of information on some changes in grant programs for this year would allow funding for this project. I'm still looking into grant funding, but I will need your help and support to get more people to realize the problem. Budget meetings for 2010/11 begin in March.

Thank you.

Kelly J. Dishman

County Mayor