Last year,the Town of Danville wholeheartedly supported the citizen petition warrant to get rid of the regional ACO contract with Plaistow and to reinstate the Danville ACO position by passing the warrant with an overwhelming 418 to 263 vote. However, the Selectmen are choosing to ignore the Town’s directive and have placed a warrant on the town ballot to “dissolve the petition”. Why in the world are they choosing to ignore the Town’s directive?
The petition warrant passed with such a large margin because the contract with Plaistow was not providing a cost effective, responsive service. In fact, the hourly rate for the regional ACO services went up from $16.00 to $21.00, just after our town vote. In addition, the service has not been responsive to Danville’s needs.
I was Danville’s former ACO from 2004-2011 and am currently running for the elected position. I am constantly being pulled aside and told by numerous Danville residents that their calls are never answered or called upon to help a resident out because of the unanswered calls
In addition, Town records revealed that the Danville Police are doing just as many calls as the regional ACO does. Town records revealed that the Danville Police did 93 animal related calls, and the regional ACO did 92 animal related calls with the total animal related calls of 185. So much for the contract with Plaistow alleviating the burden on the Towns police officers, who have more pressing public safety issues to deal with.
Please vote against the Selectmen’s warrant to dissolve the elected ACO position and tell your friends to vote against it. Send a message to the Selectmen that they are obligated to do as the Town directs them, not to impose their own personal agenda. Strangely enough one of the Selectmen who wrote this warrant to dissolve the position is also running for the position she wanted to dissolve.
Please vote ‘No’ on Article 2013-16, and keep the elected Animal Control position..
Sheila Johannesen
Danville
