Niagara Falls city lawmakers broke a deadlocked vote from one week ago and approved, at a Monday night special meeting, a request from Mayor Robert Restaino to approve a contract for a vendor to provide temporary dog sheltering services for the city.
The vote was 3 to 1 with City Council Member Donta Myles (D) opposed, as he was last week. Council Chair James Perry (D) and members Traci Bax (R) and David Zajac (R) voted in favor of the contract.
Member Brian Archie (D), who previously voted no on the contract, was absent from Monday’s meeting. Bax had been excused from last week’s special meeting that ended with a 2-2 tie on the contract vote.
The contract calls for Island Pet Lodge, Inc., a company owned by Town of Grand Island animal control officer Michael Ludwig and his wife, Kim, to provide shelter services for the city from April 28 to Dec. 31, with an option to extend the contract “until a city owned dog shelter is fully operational.” The Ludwigs proposed the contract in response to a city-issued Request For Proposals (RFP) calling for a vendor to provide “dog sheltering services” to the city.
The need for a temporary dog shelter service provider was created when the city’s current vendor, The Pit Chic, on Grand Island, announced its exit from the animal sheltering business.
Pit Chic owner Kelli Swagel said in early March that she was terminating her contract with the city because she was “restructuring” her business and intended to move away from municipal animal sheltering contracts to focus more on dog boarding and training.
Swagel, who also operates a non-profit dog rescue organization Rescue Buffalo, has said a rise in animal cruelty, animal abandonment and strays have presented challenges for rescues and shelters that cater primarily to local dogs.
Ludwig’s contract will make 10 kennel spaces available to the city on or before April 28, at a monthly charge of $10,500, which, over the course of a standard 30-day month, equals a daily rate of $350. The city paid The Pit Chic a monthly rate of $20,270.
In his proposal, Ludwig said his company will only release stray dogs under its care to “rightful” owners during normal business hours and only after the owner has presented staff with photo identification and a receipt, signed and dated by the City Clerk, that confirms ownership and the owner’s payment of all applicable charges and fees.
According to Ludwig the Island Pet Lodge was formed in 2010 and the company’s Grand Island location, which provides dog daycare, boarding and training services, opened in 2011. The site has also served as the Town of Grand Island’s municipal dog shelter for the past decade.
The 10 available kennels are less than the 13 to 14 spaces regularly provided by The Pit Chic.
In response to questions from Myles, Acting Corporation Counsel Thomas DeBoy said, “there’s nothing changed” in the proposed Pet Lodge contract. He also repeated a claim that the SPCA of Niagara had offered to provide additional space for stray dogs “if the city’s vendor was having difficulty providing space” on “an emergency basis.”
However, Myles said he had received a text message from SPCA Executive Director Amy Lewis that read, “There is no such offer on the table.” In the message, Lewis indicated that a letter from the SPCA board president, to the city, had said that if “no viable offer for sheltering could be found,” operators of the Lockport Road shelter would “sit down with the city” to discuss options.
DeBoy said Lewis was “not the person” city administrators had communicated with at the SPCA. He also warned that if the Pet Lodge contract was not approved, “there will be no sheltering (for dogs) after April 28.”
Myles said he found the services available from the Pet Lodge to be lacking.
“I don’t see a care in the world for our furry friends.”