Archive for August, 2010

I talked with Mark Hurte this morning about the more than 100 dogs that were taken to the Garrard County Humane Society building for emergency care on Sunday. He said many of the dogs need serious medical care after living in bad conditions at a Casey County residence.

Local churches and PetSmart, which has worked with the humane society on more than one occasion, helped out by providing crates and food for the dogs, while vets Darrell Taul and Kevin Flinn helped process and care for the dogs.

When I got there this morning, it was an incredibly busy scene. The dogs from Casey County are being kept in the rear warehouse area, while the humane society’s animals are all staying in the other rooms. Some of the Casey County dogs look like normal dogs, while others have been partially or entirely shaved.

Mark told me some of the dogs had gotten quick-drying concrete mix into their fur, which then hardened when mixed with water. Others had really bad matting and mange.

Mark said an amazing aspect of the whole process was how, after about 30 minutes of care once the dogs got there, he could see the dogs’ individual personalities beginning to re-emerge.

Some of the dogs have already been taken by rescue groups and more are being taken today. Examinations of all the dogs will continue for about a week. Mark said the Humane Society is adopting one of the dogs, a short little girl they named “Double Nickel.”

Send me an e-mail or drop a comment if you’re curious about any more details and I can try to find info for you. Here are some more photos I took while I was at the humane society:

More than 100 dogs taken from a Casey County home are being cared for by the recently created Garrard County Humane Society. The dogs were taken on Sunday after investigators found dead dogs in a freezer at the house, according to WKYT. Some of the dogs were discovered in poor health and living in bad conditions. Neighbors had been trying to care for the dogs for more than a week after a neighbor called and reported the situation to the Casey Sheriff.

I’ll have more to post on this tomorrow.

I confirmed today that Jeff Moss stepped down from his county attorney position on Friday in order to take up a teaching position at Garrard County High School. Assistant County Attorney Chris Whitworth is taking over until January, when Mark Metcalf will become the new county attorney. I had heard some rumors that Metcalf had simply been appointed ahead of time when Moss stepped down — those rumors are not true.

I haven’t yet been able to talk to Moss about his move, but if I do I’ll post some more up here.

The city council decided last night they want to consider increasing current property tax rates by four percent. The increase amounts to a few dollars for anyone owning land and/or vehicles. The examples I used in my story for the Advocate were:

A homeowner with a house valued at $100,000 will pay an additional $6 every year. A person with a vehicle or boat worth $10,000 will pay an additional $1 every year.

The increase would generate an estimated $6,000 for the city council. Some council members said that doesn’t seem like a lot of money, especially when they’ve already balanced the budget for this year. But Don Rinthen was adamant that at some point, either now or later, the city council would have to increase taxes somewhere or continue to face cutbacks as inflation and the homestead exemption cut into the city’s revenue.

The council passed the first reading of the increase last night and set a public hearing (which is required by law for a 4-percent increase) for Aug. 16 at 7 p.m. The idea put forth by Chris Davis is to have the hearing and see what people think about the increase and then make a final decision on the increase afterward.

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Another note of interest, the city council will apparently be discussing the potential for legalizing alcohol sales on Sundays at its September meeting. Maggie Morris suggested the council discuss the option in light of the need to generate more revenue for the city. She was very clear that she just wants to talk about the option, not vote on it or anything like that yet.

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Also, County Attorney Jeff Moss has stepped down and been replaced by incoming County Attorney Mark Metcalf. More on this soon.