DARLINGTON – At the Lafayette County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, Aug. 15, chairman Jack Sauer told the board that Wayne Wilson will be leaving his seat on the county board effective Sept. 1. Wilson, who holds the District 9 seat for the Village and Town of Argyle, has been on the county board for over 30 years, served on several committees and was county board chairman from 1986-2000.
Heather Christopher, owner of Shag’n Wag in Shullsburg, spoke to the board about the Animal Regulations and the Treatment of Animals ordinance that was passed at the April 18 meeting. Christopher questioned the permit for animal based businesses when Lafayette County has a low number of those types of businesses.
“I don’t think this was brain stormed or adopted enough. I believe it was just taken from Iowa County which was created for different reasons,” Christopher stated.
She added that she did not believe there was any county vehicle properly equipped to transfer animals and no humane society to take them to if an animal needs to be pulled out of a situation. She felt that the rabies vaccination requirements need to be enforced as rabies has been found in the area. Registration of animals is half of what it should be.
“Shullsburg has roughly twice as many registered animals as the Darlington area. I don’t understand that with the populations being different. Veterinarians can license on site when they vaccinate,” Christopher reported.
She didn’t agree with how the ordinance was drawn up and the county board was not given enough information before making their decision. She also believes that the county does need to look into have a humane society.
Corporate Council Nathan Russell informed the board that any village or city can opt out of the ordinance but townships cannot.
Kriss Marion said that maybe this should be looked over again at the Law Enforcement Committee who suggested the ordinance and more outside input could be put into it.
“It never hurts when you are drafting an ordinance to hear from the people and business that deal with these issues,” Jack Sauer said.
Update from Multi-Use
Highway Commissioner Tom Jean updated the county board that they did break ground on the building and the bids they have accepted. He discussed that this facility will be nice for the whole county to use. Local contractors bids came in as the best bids. Jean stated it would be funded through the budget of the highway department but still needs to speak with the finance to see how they will pay for it.
Many county board members were happy to see local contractors were chosen to do the project and keeping some costs down by the highway department being their own general contractors. Their plan is to have the foundation work ready by Sept. 1 and all closed in before freezing temperatures.