City officials could soon be meeting with Vicksburg-Warren Humane Society representatives to discuss a possible joint venture to operate and maintain an animal shelter.

Mayor George Flaggs Jr. directed assistant public works director Jeff Richardson and shelter supervisor Robert May to meet with Humane Society executive director Georgia Lynn “within 30 to 60 days” to discuss the possibility of combining resources.

Flaggs wants to examine the possibility of resurrecting a plan for a consolidated shelter for the county and city discussed about 15 years ago.

The Humane Society is a private non-profit organization, which has a shelter on 8 acres of land on U.S. 61 South, across from the Vicksburg Municipal Airport. Lynn said the organization has a contract with the county to take mistreated, aggressive or abandoned animals. The animals kept at the Humane Society include small animals like dogs and cats and large animals like horses.

She said at one point during the Laurence Leyens administration, Leyens initiated a plan to have one animal shelter for the city and county operated by the Humane Society. Under the plan, the city would keep its animal control personnel, but contract out shelter operations.

The project later fell through. A site for a shelter on Porters Chapel Road was considered, but rejected after residents in the area complained.

“We’re trying to get that proposal back on the table and see if all three of us can agree that’s the best thing for the community,” Flaggs said.

“I think some of the needs are the same,” South Ward Alderman Willis Thompson said. “You house animals.”

“I want you (Lynn) and him (Richardson) get together and see how we can have some type of arrangement with you in conjunction with the understanding long-term that we may be able to come to some type of general agreement and come up with a facility that’s better both (the city and the Humane Society).”

Lynn said she would have to meet with Humane Society’s board of directors to discuss the proposal.

She pointed out several areas that needed to be examined.

“I don’t know how much you pay your people to work up at the city pound,” she said. “I take it they get benefits, health benefits. At my facility, I do not consider it a minimum wage job, because you’ve got to have people responsible enough to trust, and you’re not going to get that out of a teenager.

“Right now, there’s so much to be discussed, because you’re looking at benefits. We don’t have any health benefits because we can’t afford it. There’s just so much (detail) to be discussed.”

“But you feel confident with the right attitude from this board and a good attitude from your board, that we may work out something to minimize the cost and minimize the lack of attention of animals in Vicksburg and Warren County,” Flaggs said.

“I think a lot can be done to improve (the situation),” Lynn said.

“We’ll all sit down and go over the nuts and bolts and relook at the proposal and money and personnel,” Richardson said. “And all responsibilities.”

“I think we’ve got the short-term solution,” Flaggs said. “What we’re trying to do is fix it where if we go out and invest in another building, that whatever we’re going to invest, we’re going to have good management, good everything, so it won’t be a duplication (of services) or won’t be an extra burden to the county or the city. We need to do what’s best for the public.”