(Left to right) Undersheriff Wes Rethwill, Sheriff Rob Snaza and Chief Chris Sweet meet with the Lewis County Board of Commissioners Tuesday March 12, 2019.
Noting the consistency and the frequency that Lewis County Sheriff’s Office deputies respond to animal complaints, the Sheriff’s Office and Lewis County Public Health and Social Services pushed for an “extended partnership” between the two agencies to bring on a new code enforcement officer.
A job posting for the position went up recently, and will close April 1, said Danette York, director of Public Health and Social Services.
Conversation between the two entities had been going for a bit, said York, after she was approached by the sheriff’s office with a request to have someone designated specifically for animal calls.
“I would say that at any point in time, looking at the call screen for our deputies, there’s anywhere from two to four or more animal-related calls that come up at any one point in time,” said Undersheriff Wes Rethwill. “I don’t want to say that there’s been a huge increase, I would say that it has just been over the last four and a half, five years, it’s just been very, very constant.”
The call types vary, he said: dogs may be on the loose, livestock may be on a road or pets may be neglected. This new position will respond to each of them, and will have a limited commission through the sheriff’s office.
The new officer will work within the sheriff’s office, but will be an employee of Public Health & Social Services — the agency that oversees code enforcement. York said it makes more sense for the person to work from the sheriff’s office, given they’ll respond to the calls as they go through the system.
Currently, there are two code enforcement officers at Public Health & Social Services. One of them, Bill Teitzel, doubles as environmental services supervisor.
Rethwill said when multiple calls are coming in, deputies have to prioritize which calls they’ll take first. Having someone to specifically handle animal calls will take some pressure off deputies and get a faster response to animal calls, he said.
“We don’t want to minimize the importance of (animal-related calls), but because of being at 2008 staffing levels at the sheriff’s office, creating these out-of-the-box partnerships with other governmental entities, I think we’ll be able to be in a better position to respond out and provide services to the folks calling in,” said Rethwill.
