MACON, Ga. — Bibb County Commission has agreed to pay a $50,000 fine if the county violates an agreement with the Georgia Department of Agriculture within the next three years. This all happened Tuesday night when the commission approved a consent order.
"We shouldn't be getting the fine," said Mallory Jones, county commissioner.
If the county doesn't violate the order within the next three years, it's suspended.
"It's not like the county is going to spend out $50,000. It's just like a suspended fine, pending, to make the upgrades and all the work that needed to be done at the shelter will be done," said Sheriff David Davis.
However, if the order is violated, the county will be fined, and they'll lose their animal shelter license.
This comes as a result of a state inspection back in October. Now, the state says they need to see improvement from the animal shelter, including putting a minimum of $15,000 toward turn the shelter around.
"It has to be the cleanliness of the shelter. Maybe upgrades of the equipment, the air condition vents need to be kept clean, pest control needs to be on a reoccurring basis that they come out and check the facility so there's no pests," Davis said.
The other problem was overcrowding.
"We're not equipped to handle but 80 dogs and 40 cats," Jones said.
The Bibb County Sheriff's Office took over the shelter in December. Sheriff David Davis says now that they're overlooking the shelter, they can help to monitor how many animals they take in.
"Whenever the shelter is getting a little bit over capacity, we can talk about other alternatives with picking up so many stray animals," Davis said.
"We really need to do something about court case held dogs. We got to get them in a different location,"
Sheriff Davis says some of those dogs that are caught up in court cases have been adjudicated this week because the cost of care.
"We haven't been able to take dogs or cats since this order from the state Department of Agriculture went into place," Mayor Robert Reichert said.
Moving forward, the next step for the county is start implementing rules of the consent agreement.
"We hope we can move forward and get the shelter open sooner rather than later," Davis said.
The county has been under the stop order for the past four months.
Since the commission approved this consent order, Animal Welfare is expecting a visit from state inspectors in the coming weeks. Sheriff David Davis says there have been no personnel changes since Bibb County Sheriff's Office took over, and he doesn't plan on making any personnel changes.
STAY ALERT | Download our FREE app now to receive breaking news and weather alerts. You can find the app on the Apple Store and Google Play.
STAY UPDATED | Click here to subscribe to our Midday Minute newsletter and receive the latest headlines and information in your inbox every day.
Have a news tip? Email news@13wmaz.com, or visit our Facebook page.