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Animal-rights advocates seek update to Girard’s tethering law
By Sean Barron
GIRARD
The city’s tethering law went into effect more than 60 years ago, and the time is past due for city council to take concrete steps to update it, an animal-rights advocate contends.
“They have been dragging their feet for a couple of months now,” said Bev Spicer, administrator for Nitro’s Ohio Army, an grass-roots animal-rights group with about 2,000 members.
Spicer and about 25 others were on hand for an outdoor rally before council’s meeting Monday in the administration building on South Market Street. The protest was to call city officials’ attention to what protesters see as the need to update the law, which has been on the books since 1953.
Spicer said she and others want to see stricter enforcement regarding handling complaints of dogs and cats being confined and left outside too long in excessive heat or cold and other extreme weather, or when severe-weather alerts are posted.
Also, police and humane agents should have greater authority to protect animals from abuse and neglect, including more power to issue fines or, in more egregious situations, confiscate the pet, Spicer continued. She added that she’s been trying to get council to take action since last fall, before cold weather set in.
“Animals can feel pain and cold,” the Girard woman said. “We have to be the voice for them. … Animals are not possessions; they’re our family members.”
During council’s regular meeting, Spicer called for having pit-bull terriers removed from the city’s vicious-dogs’ category. Such animals are not aggressive by nature, she said in calling for an end to the city’s pit-bull ban.
Holly Justice, who started an organization called Justice Rallies, noted that part of the rally was in memory of Charlie, a dog who froze and starved to death in subzero temperatures last January in Campbell. It is hoped that updating Girard’s tethering law will decrease the likelihood of such an occurrence in the city, she added.
Stephen Brooks, 1st Ward councilman, scheduled a meeting for 3:30 p.m. Thursday in the mayor’s office to discuss the city’s tethering law and to look at Warren’s more-updated law to see what changes need to be made.
During council’s finance-committee meeting, officials discussed ways to try to offset what they predict will be a decrease in city revenues for this year. One move they looked at was the possibility of increasing water rates by 10 percent, which would generate $300,000 more in income, noted Councilman John Moliterno.
The city is facing a $96,000 general-fund deficit, according to a recent report by Auditor Samuel J. Zirafi.
Even with several fund deficits, however, Girard should be able to eliminate the negative balances by 2018, the report also predicts.
Zirafi and Mayor James J. Melfi said that the shortfall was directly related to a decrease in payroll-tax revenue from Vallourec Star, which manufactures pipes for the oil and gas industry. In 2014, the France-based business brought in $475,000 in income to the city, compared with last year’s $300,000 in revenue, the mayor noted, adding that the company is Girard’s largest employer and contributor of income tax.
Vallourec opened its $650 million rolling mill on property that Youngstown annexed from Girard. Last year, though, it saw a decrease in profits and laid off a number of workers, prompted by lower gas prices and more sellers than buyers in the market.
In addition, about half of Trinity Industry’s operations ceased last year, which further added to the deficit, Melfi said.
Nevertheless, the city took in $3,443,928 in income taxes in 2015, a 0.14 percent increase from the $3,439,137 it collected in 2014, noted Treasurer Mark Zuppo.