Riverhead and North Fork Animal Welfare League have new 10-year contract

Riverhead Town has a new 10-year contract with the North Fork Animal Welfare League for animal control and shelter services within the town.

The contract runs from Sept. 1 of this year through Aug. 31, 2029 and calls for an annual fee for services of $253,135 in year one, with increases tied to the consumer price index in years two through ten. Payments are to be made by the town in 12 equal monthly installments.

The new annual fee represents a $10,000 increase over the fee of $243,135 payable in the final year of the last contract, which expired in February and was extended in March for six months on the same terms.

The North Fork Animal Welfare League has provided animal control and shelter services in Riverhead since March 2013, a partnership that solved an ongoing problem for the town. The operation of the cramped, often overcrowded former dog pound on Youngs Avenue had for years been under fire by animal rights activists and volunteers, who were frequently at odds with animal control officers and the police chief over shelter conditions, treatment of the dogs housed there, often long-term, and policies restricting the activities of would-be volunteers.

Although NFAWL continued to operate the shelter out of the outdated town facility, the league and the town agreed it had to be replaced.

After Riverhead’s plan to move its animal shelter to the site of the Pfeiffer Community Center in Calverton failed to progress, the North Fork Animal Welfare League in October 2018 purchased a former dog kennel property in Aquebogue and moved out of the town’s Youngs Avenue facility.

The NFAWL’s new site — a 7,500-square-foot facility on six wooded acres on Church Lane — was “like paradise,” in the words of the organization’s executive director Gillian Wood Pultz, compared to the town’s facility. The organization commenced a $2.8 million renovation project at the new site, which had been a dog kennel since the early 1960s. In January NFAWL announced it had received a $500,000 grant from the New York State Companion Animal Capital Fund to help underwrite the costs of the renovation.

Under the new contract, NFAWL is responsible for all utilities, maintenance, repairs and operations of the shelter and animal care, including veterinary care.

The town board at its meeting Tuesday night authorized the supervisor to execute the contract, which had already been signed by the president of NFAWL.