OTTUMWA — Wapello County is expanding its law enforcement responsibilities under a new agreement with the city of Eddyville.

Sheriff Don Kirkendall said the agreement covers basic patrol services for Eddyville.

“Basically this covers 15-20 hours of patrol a week in the city of Eddyville and responding to any calls for service,” he said.

Eddyville will reimburse the county for the costs, paying $42,996 per year.

Earlier this year, the Eddyville City Council discussed whether or not to close the city’s police department since part-time Police Chief Charles Van Toorn is expected to retire this month.

The move is one of two discussed Tuesday with potentially significant impacts on the county budget. Supervisor Jerry Parker proposed a shift in the county’s animal pickup policy that reduces the amount of time the county will pay for housing stray animals. The county does not have an animal control officer, but it does respond when residents say they have found an animal on their property.

Those animals go to a shelter for five days under the current policy. Wapello County pays $10 per day for the care of the animals. In 2008 the county covered 48 animals under that policy, but has already picked up 66 animals this year.

The increase seems to be related to mass animal dumping as opposed to the number of individual calls.

“It appears that we’re getting more where someone says they found a box with eight puppies,” Parker said.

Animals picked up by the county go to Heartland Humane Society at the end of the five-day waiting period. Parker proposed shifting to three days of care for county pickups, a move he says would have saved $800 last year.

That said, Parker emphasized that the move will probably not wind up saving money this year. He thinks the increased number of pickups will probably balance out any potential savings, allowing the county to remain within its budget by stretching rather than saving money.

Supervisors say the move will not increase the number of animals euthanized after being picked up as strays because Heartland Humane is a no-kill shelter. That’s an important point for the board, which wants to avoid situations in which a pet owner tries to track down an animal only to find it has been put down.

The board did not adopt the proposal on Tuesday, choosing instead to formally put it up for debate at a later meeting.

Matt Milner can be reached at (641) 683-5359 or via e-mail at mwmilner@mchsi.com