West Springfield Mayor Edward Gibson expects to decide soon how to solve city's stray dog problem

Gibson expects to reach a decision in time to get a letter to the Town Council by its next meeting.

Associated PressIn this Tuesday, March 15, 2011 photo, abandoned dogs in the shelter near the city of Backa Topola, about 100 kilometers north of Belgrade, Serbia. According to the official data, the number of stray dogs in Belgrade alone has doubled in the past several years, reaching over 8,000 dogs in the central municipalities and 15,000 in the entire city area, a huge number for the city of 2 million, when, for example, the Russian capital, Moscow, has five times more people than Belgrade, and 26,000 stray dogs. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

WEST SPRINGFIELD – Mayor Edward J. Gibson, who is leaning toward joining an inter-municipal compact to deal with the city’s stray dog problem, said he expects to reach a decision in time to send a letter to the Town Council for its Monday evening meeting.

“We’re extremely close. I think we are at the point at which everything is ironed out,” Gibson said late Friday afternoon.

Edward J. Gibson

The mayor has been involved in negotiations in recent months to join a compact with Agawam and Westfield that would allow Agawam and West Springfield to send their stray canines to Westfield’s dog pound. The Agawam City Council recently approved the pact.

Since the Thomas J. O’Connor Animal Control and Adoption Center of Springfield ended its contract with the city to take in stray dogs July 1, West Springfield has been without a place to send its stray dogs. The mayor also has been considering whether to strike a new agreement with the Springfield dog pound.

The situation has caused concern among local animal lovers as well as officials at Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society in Springfield. Some residents have brought their stray dogs to Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society in Springfield, where one official has said she learned secondhand that police were telling West Springfield residents to take dogs there.

Gibson denied that, and the official asked that dogs not be sent to Dakin.

The mayor said he is still working to get a veterinarian lined up to comply with a state requirement that the animals get medical examinations.

One city councilor believes the length of time Gibson is taking to resolve the problem is unacceptable.

“He never saw a deadline he didn’t want to miss,” City Councilor George R. Kelly, who ran unsuccessfully against Gibson for mayor in 2007, said.

“I just don’t think we can ignore things,” said Kelly, who described himself as puzzled by what he sees as a laissez-faire, if not blase attitude by Gibson.

The mayor had earlier delayed a decision on the dog issue to allow time to get a piece of technical information about a lease.