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Tyngsboro looks to Chelmsford for animal control services

TYNGSBORO — Selectmen unanimously agreed this week that the town should enter an agreement with Chelmsford for regional animal control services.

The vote was an uncommon display of unity among board members about the issue of animal control.

For the past year, the board was split on the behavior of the former animal control officer, David E. Robson. But changes on the Board of Selectmen and Robson’s resignation in June changed the debate.

Town Administrator Matt Hanson was asked then to evaluate the options the town has to ensure animal control services continue. He presented four options at this week’s meeting.

The first option, regional services, would mean that kennel facilities would be in Chelmsford. Hanson emphasized, however, that the kennel is very close to Tyngsboro. Located at 2 Old North Road, it is just off the old exit 32 from Route 3.

Other options that Hanson proposed were: Assigning a current employee, likely from the highway department extra duty on a part-time basis, or hiring a contracted employee.

Hanson, Police Chief Richard Howe, and Deputy Chief Shaun Woods recently met with Chelmsford ACO Mark Cianci to discuss what the town needs.

Cianci described state education requirements for animal control officers: 30 education credits in their first year and eight hours a year thereafter. A new part-time animal control officer would likely not be trained to the same level as an experienced, full-time animal control officer.

A fourth option, a hybrid of the regional animal control officer and a current part-time town employee, drew some interest from selectmen.

As he came to the support of the first option, Selectman Chairman Ron Keohane said, “First, we have a trained animal control officer, which I think is key. Providing services is what we do as a town. There is someone there who is highly trained and who has been doing this a long time.”

Like other selectmen, Keohane said the town could at some point assign a town employee on a part-time basis to the animal control officer function with the intent of providing backup to the Chelmsford animal control officer.

Hanson told the board that the Chelmsford Town Manager Paul Cohen has already notified that town’s Select Board of  the Tyngsboro proposal.

The next step is for Howe and Chelmsford Police Chief James Spinney to negotiate a memorandum of agreement for each town’s board to approve.

Robson resigned soon after his son, David Robson, lost his bid for re-election to the Board of Selectmen to newcomers Katerina Kalabokis and Eric Eldridge on June 15.

Following the election, the elder Robson also lost majority support on the board. Previously, he had  been retained as the animal control officer despite making racially insensitive social media posts referring to George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement.