Shenandoah Valley Animal Services Center Board to improve shelter with more staff and better director pay

AUGUSTA COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) - The Shenandoah Valley Animal Services Center (SVASC) has staffing challenges, it has been a problem for years.

Friday February 25, during a meeting in Verona the shelter board shared its plan for improvement. Animal advocates are happy to see things moving in the right direction.

The plan calls for restructuring with more staff, creating an advisory committee down the road, and facility improvements. But first, finding a new director for a significantly higher salary.

The shelter board is posting the job early next week for a new director. Pay is about $57,000 a year. That’s a $20,000 jump and exactly what animal advocates wanted to see happen.

Renee Clark with Cat’s Cradle Animal Rescue wants to make sure they get somebody good, and she wants volunteers to be able to help with that.

“Also, make sure that with the new staff coming in no animal space is sacrificed,” Clark said. “But actually we’re very happy with the localities and feel like they’re making good progress towards doing the right thing for the shelter.”

Once the director is in place, they will work on creating policies for the shelter, and help with some of the other additions like creating an advisory committee, and finding a supervising veterinarian.

The board also voted during the meeting for Augusta County to take over as fiscal agent of the Animal Services Center in July.

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