Richmond will continue taking stray dogs and cats to the Henry County Humane Society after the Board of Public Works and Safety approved a 2025 contract during its Aug. 29 meeting.
Terms remain $41,200 for up to 400 animals, with each additional animal costing $103.
The city has taken animals the 30 miles to New Castle since the beginning of 2022 after HELP the Animals was no longer interested in sheltering the city’s animals. The city had switched to HELP for 2020 and 2021 after previously using Animal Welfare League, which often lacked shelter space.
RFD approvals
The board approved a contract with Donley & Associates Inc. to take the ambulance box off a Richmond Fire Department ambulance involved in an accident and mount it onto a 2025 E-450 Ford chassis.
The contract is for $180,512. Chief Jeff Kinder told Richmond Common Council members during city budget hearings that this would be a test to see if the process could work as a cost-effective way to replace ambulances in the future. Kinder said a new ambulance costs about $310,000.
Five contracts with probationary firefighters were also approved. The contracts require the firefighters to achieve paramedic certification within five years.
Cost savings
Rose View Transit will switch its fire monitoring system to Cen-Sor Security Systems, a Cambridge City company, saving approximately 50% per year in monitoring and inspection fees, plus other costs.
Rose View experienced a malfunction of its Koorsen Security system, with Koorsen blaming two copper phone lines supplied by Frontier Communications and Frontier blaming Koorsen’s alarm panel.
Cen-Sor provided a lower alarm quote of $635.20 per year, plus it provides free equipment when Koorsen would require Rose View to buy equipment for about $2,500. Rose View also will save about $100 per month without the Frontier phone lines.
The board approved the contract 3-0.
A version of this article appeared in the September 4 2024 print edition of the Western Wayne News.