Rostraver seeking new provider for animal control

Solicitor Joseph Dalfonso said it’s a growing problem for area communities.

Rostraver Township commissioners learned Monday that the township’s animal control service recently resigned.

Township Manager Jeffrey Keffer announced at Monday’s meeting that the township is searching for a replacement, but they’ve been unable to find someone new.

“We’ve reached out to a few people to see who they use,” Keffer said, “and to a few people that in the past have been involved in it, and so far, nobody is interested in providing us any service at this point.”

Keffer said the next step would be to advertise the vacancy. Township Solicitor Joseph Dalfonso, who works with other Mon Valley communities, told the board that this is a new issue arising for municipalities.

Keffer said the Rostraver Police Department recently had to arrest someone who had three dogs, but the township had no one who could take the pets. An officer had to watch over the pets before a new home was found for them.

Even with the vacancy, Keffer recommends that township residents call 911 if anyone needs help with a pet or animal.

“They still can call 911, and file a report, and hopefully the police can go out and investigate the situation and see if there’s anything we can do,” Keffer said. “Maybe the dog has a collar on or something we can get an ID off and call, but if it’s a stray, right now, our hands are kind of tied with what we can do with it.”

Keffer said their former animal control provider did a great job for the township, but high numbers of animal control calls started to make it difficult for them. It was mentioned that Turkey Hollow Road has become an issue due to people abandoning their dogs in that area.

“The people that resigned were Animal Control Services,” Keffer said. “They’ve actually been our provider for at least seven to eight years now, and they did a great job. She was awesome. I mean, nothing against her. It just became too much for her to come this far to provide a service.”

Maintenance of zoning and road maps

Township Planner Tamira Spedaliere explained to commissioners a potential proposal where they would have Westmoreland County take over the management of the township’s zoning and road maps.

Spedaliere explained that the county has started to offer municipalities a partnership where they take over the maintenance of the maps, and places like Greensburg have already bought into it. Spedaliere said partnering with the county might make accessing property information easier. “We had looked at years ago of having an interactive zoning map, one that someone could click on their parcel and find out all the information,” she said. “The county is able to do that.”

Spedaliere said the service is available for less than $3,000, which she called a very reasonable price.