BASS Begins Vacating Bloomingdale

Nearly 100 animals were moved out of the Bloomingdale Regional Animal Shelter Society's (BASS) Brandt Lane shelter Sunday night, the majority of animals being sheltered in foster homes.

BASS President Ellen Ribitzki said volunteers moved the animals in preparation of what she expects to be another council meeting Tuesday where terms that were included in the contract offered to them Dec. 30 are not agreed upon by both parties. Ribitzki said there are still two dogs at the facility working with shelter trainers and a few cats.

Mayor Jonathan Dunleavy said Monday night the first time he heard about BASS beginning to vacate the property was at about 3 p.m. Monday.

"They didn't reach out to anybody in any official capacity stating that they were doing it," he said.

Ribitzki confirmed BASS did not inform the borough that they were moving animals out, nor did they feel obligated to.

"We've never had a contract and we figured if we told them, we might not be leaving with our stuff," she said.

Ribitzki said BASS will be giving the borough "our last chance" Tuesday night to offer terms that BASS can agree upon. There were several items in the offered contract that Ribitzki said BASS would not agree with, including a 120-day clause which would allow the borough to terminate the contract with 120 days notice and the borough being able to keep cages or any permanent fixtures built in the building that houses the shelter.

"Quite frankly, the cages are ours," Ribitzki said. "We'd be happy to make sure that whatever we attach, we'll fill in a hole so they're useable again."

Ribitzki said BASS has been asking the borough for a contract to help pay for the costs of running the shelter for the past six years and amidst the borough's Animal Control Office bringing in animals from seven municipalities through shared services agreements. She also said BASS has put $100,000 worth of equipment into the building it uses and has had a hard time raising money this year due to economy.

"This year, we expect to be inundated with kittens," she noted.

But Dunleavy said BASS would already be receiving money-including for January and February, which Ribitzki said BASS should have been paid $2,500 per month for as they were September-December while they were awaiting a contract-if they agreed to the contract offered Dec. 30. The five-year contract had the borough paying $31,500 this year for the services BASS provides.

Ribitzki argued that the borough should have provided the payments for the two months even if the contract was not yet signed.

"I kind of felt they should have given us a good faith payment if they were intending to sign a contract," she said.

Dunleavy said if, in fact, the borough learns Tuesday that BASS intends to fully vacate the property, the borough may have a few options, including to find another facility that would be able to shelter animals brought in by ACO or look into whether the borough could run the operation in-house. But the mayor also said that the borough has not yet considered these options since the contract was offered to BASS and that he would not want the borough to spend more than the amount of money that was offered to BASS. He also said if BASS decides to leave, he would like to have the borough go through the motions of another bidding process.

At the council's last meeting, Borough Attorney Fred Semrau promised to reach out to BASS' attorney to discuss the terms that were not agreeable in BASS' opinion. Ribitzki said BASS had received notice from Semrau just before the weekend and that she did not feel that the borough was making a commitment to work with BASS.

The council will be meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Bloomingdale Borough Hall. If a contract is agreed upon Tuesday, Ribitzki said the animals would be returned. If not, Ribitzki said she has already begun looking at new locations for BASS and that with nearly all of the animals already out, it would not be too hard to entirely vacate the property quickly.