Published: November 06, 2009 10:55 am      

Animal control comes under fire at meeting

Effingham County officials continue to discuss the state of the county’s animal control department.

Public Safety Committee member David Campbell said at Thursday’s committee meeting that he had received complaints from his constituents that animal control officers were playing disc golf at Community Park on county time.

Former board candidate Ed Hoopingarner, who has become a frequent board critic, said he had first-hand knowledge that the officers were playing disc golf during the day. He also accused the officers of illegally running his license plate after the sighting.

“As I turned the corner, animal control was following me,” Hoopingarner said.

Animal control supervisor Brent Budde said the officer — who was not named — was on his lunch hour when Hoopingarner and fellow board critic Stan Wilber saw him.

“The officer wanted to find out who was harassing him on his lunch hour,” Budde said. “To me, that’s our hour to do whatever we want and you guys were taking pictures of him.”

Hoppingarner accused the officer of lying to police about the reason for running his plate.

Budde complained Hoopingarner was going behind his back to complain about animal control issues.

“You’ve never talked to me about problems in my department,” Budde said. “For us to change something, it needs to come to me.”

The county’s animal control situation has been under fire for several years, chiefly because of allegedly slow response times. There has been talk about moving the department from direct board supervision to under the sheriff’s department.

Bill Grimes can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 132 or bill.grimes@effinghamdailynews.com.