Dog warden Beam talks 2023, looks ahead with commissioners

Holmes County dog warden Jonathan Beam met with the Holmes County commissioners Monday, Nov. 27 at the Old Jail in Millersburg to discuss the past year, including the budget, and what lies ahead in the future.

Beam said the office raised its tag fees last year, which helped the department stay solid financially in 2023.

“Our license tag fees have gradually continued to go up the past couple of years, and we kind of leveled off in our numbers in the kennels, and I think we could continue to see that again next year as people continue to get out of the (dog industry) business,” Beam said to the commissioners. “But even with that (drop), we aren’t going to see much of a decrease or change (financially).”

The department creates income through adoption fees, fines from citations, tag and license sales and impound fees while relying heavily on donations.

One major expense the department took on this year was hiring a technician/deputy dog warden, Jess McConville, who has stepped into the role and become an invaluable part of the team there.

Beam said she also serves as event coordinator, and her efforts to create and conduct several fundraising events this year were hugely successful.

“We’ve been blessed to have Jess on board,” Beam said.

The department also raised all of its kennel fences this past year due to several dogs scaling the former wall to get outside. Beam added that the dogs that escaped weren’t aggressive or bad dogs, just simply very athletic.

Other additions in 2023 included recoating the kennel floor, adding a foster program and improvements in the playground area.

“The foster program was huge,” Beam said. “People were able to take dogs home and foster them until we had space to bring them back in. Others fostered dogs to adopt to see how things went.”

A community member who passed away this year left the department money to improve the facility, and Beam said they continue to use that to add equipment to the playground area where the dogs can run and play freely.

“We want to put that in memory of her,” Beam said of the donor.

He said they didn’t experience any significant expenses, but they did have one deputy leave the department, so they will hire a new team member in 2024.

One major concern facing the department is the rising cost of medical care for the dogs. Beam said costs are rising across the board, including veterinarian services and having animals spayed and neutered.

“Everything just costs more now,” Beam said. “We’ve been seeing more dogs come in with medical problems that need to be seen.”

Fortunately, the department had medical donations of $11,449, much of that coming through its fundraising efforts where people can discover more about everything the dog warden office does.

Much of the discussion for 2024 revolved around the ongoing talks about expanding the dog kennel facility, something that is in the infant stages of discussion.

One thing that Beam said would be beneficial is finding a better way to improve the expediency in which they can get a dog spayed or neutered. Currently, dogs are scheduled two to three weeks out, and they continue to go outside of the county to have some of the procedures done.

That means they often must hang on to dogs for lengthy periods before they can put them up for adoption.

“We are a pretty in-and-out facility,” Beam said.

He suggested exploring the use of Alter Care Clinic in Massillon as a possible option. The company partners with county dog warden offices and utilizes a traveling transport to visit sites and provide transportation in a large bus that takes animals back to their facility for a day to be spayed and neutered.

“If we partner with them, we could have people call in and register and make an appointment to have their dog picked up as part of it to be spayed or neutered,” Beam said. “It is a discount, so we are looking at a big difference financially.”

Beam said he has talked to the organization, and they are excited about teaming up with Holmes County.

With spay and neutering costs ranging between $200 to $350, he said this provides one more financially viable option. He said the department would like to begin early in 2024 and would set up stops once a month.

The commissioners also discussed the possibility of having a local veterinarian come to the facility regularly.

Beam said they have also discussed opening up the playground area to the community after hours, allowing people to bring their dogs in to exercise and play with them on the equipment. Beam said they would offer the facility free to the community.

The commissioners suggested looking into liability issues before doing so.

Anyone wishing to donate to Holmes County Dog Warden and Adoption Center may do so by calling them at 330-674-6301 or visiting them on Facebook and clicking on the Amazon Wish List, where people can go on and make donated purchases anonymously.

“It has all of the supplies we are in need of,” Beam said. “We’ve seen a nice response from the public through that.”