Council asks for input on animal ordinance

TRINITY — The Trinity City Council has again discussed amending its animal control ordinance because the problem is growing.

At the Thursday meeting, Mayor Billy Goodin said that the city needs to start educating the residents and holding the owners of loose pets responsible.

Goodin pointed out that the city recently received and installed a set of kennels to increase the capacity, and have found that in short order, they were not enough.

“We will put this on the agenda (to) go through the current ordinance to add what’s needed and to get rid of what’s garbage,” he said. “This won’t get done in a week, but we need to get started.”

Council Member Bubba Smith questioned the logistics of requiring residents to register their pets, but Goodin and Council Member Clegg Dewalt pointed out that this has been a growing problem for years and the city needs to start somewhere.

In other business, council members:

• discussed improving the annual Christmas event to include more items;
• approved hiring Raymond Vann and Associates for grant administration work on a storm-related Community Development Block Grant; and
• approved becoming members of Texas SmartBuy, a program for municipalities to purchase items as a discount, to purchase toxicology and blood alcohol kits for the Police Department.