By Louie Graves
News-Leader staff
The Howard County Quorum Court spent most of its October meeting time Monday dealing with two items that got no action.
The items were animal control and the legal defense of indigents.
Nashville Mayor Larry Dunaway spoke to the JPs about the city’s animal control program which it currently shares with Dierks, Mineral Springs, Prescott and Washington. Dunaway said he had six applicants for the recently vacated position of animal control officer, and would make a decision soon.
The JPs seemed merely to want a place where rural residents could bring stray dogs or cats — not an animal control program. The problem is in how to pay for such a service, and Dunaway had no easy answer.
County Judge Brent Pinkerton emphatically said he was not advocating for an animal control program, but brought up the topic because of concerns of citizens, and suggested this meeting was a starting point.
Mayor Dunaway said that there was a people problem, not an animal problem.
JPs suggested that a representative of SWA-PAWS come to the court’s November meeting.
Most of Monday’s lengthy meeting was taken by the animal discussion; and the rest of it was devoted to Tisha Martin of the Howard County Public Defender office who eventually asked the JPs to raise the county program’s 2026 appropriation by $4,000 to slightly more than $16,500. No action was taken.
The JPs got an update on Developing Howard County from Executive Director Vanessa Weeks.
Present for the meeting were JPs Liz McDaniel, Jerry Harwell, Juanita Jackson, Don Marks, Andy Hogg, D’Ann Henderson, Janet O’Neal and Kerry Strasner; also Judge Pinkerton, Sheriff Bryan McJunkins, Tax Assessor Cindy Butler, Treasurer Sheri Mixon, County Clerk Keri Teague.
