Dear Editor,

With the Belmont County Primary Election in just a few weeks, I would like to share our story on how we became volunteers at Belmont County Animal Shelter, what is driving us to Vote for Vince Gianangeli and Shaun Moran for commissioners on March 19th and why we will NOT be voting for JP Dutton or Josh Meyer.

Back in 2016 we lost our Golden Retriever Buddy that we had adopted from MCAS. In our search for another dog we found Rose our Golden at BCAS and adopted her. A couple months later around Christmas we ran into a longtime volunteer at the shelter that proceeded to tell us the shelter was in need of volunteers so that very same day we took treats and headed to the shelter where we found the previous director sitting at the desk. We said we wanted to volunteer and she was more than happy to have us and we walked dogs that very same day.

We went back Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and many other days and holidays. I’ll spare you all the details but later that year the commissioners decided to eliminate the director’s position and from that day forward it all changed. The dog warden was then put in charge of running the shelter, all of the rules changed, and we no longer felt welcome.

However, we were there for the animals and so we continued to go despite the challenges until 2021 when the dog warden fired us.

It was said we were told not to walk a dog by one of the staff members that was working there at the time. We were not told not to walk the dog they only told us of issues they were having with the dog. We walked him and got fired because we did. Commissioners signed off on firing us based off the recommendation of the dog warden.

If I were to go into everything that we did, saw, or experienced in the 5 years that we volunteered there this letter would never end.

I can tell you more needed to be done for those animals, A LOT more.

Innocent animals died. Volunteers were limited. We were made to keep quiet or we would not be able to keep our volunteer status.

After being terminated, we wrote letters to our current county commissioners with no response. We then attended several commissioners meetings expressing our concerns. The response we got at those meetings was less than appealing. Josh Meyer smirked at us and stared at his computer screen. JP Dutton rolled his eyes at us and seemed annoyed. It seemed we were just a nuisance to them.

When taxpaying members of your community are standing before you sharing experiences and expressing concerns I would not expect this response. This is why we WILL NOT be voting for either of them.

Vince Gianangeli and Shaun Moran are wanting change and they have outlined a plan of action. This is what we need. Our community needs guys like this who will listen, who actually care, and most importantly, will act.

The primary election is March 19th. Your vote determines who will become our County Commissioners. If you are not registered to vote, please do so and you must register Republican for the primary.

Do it for Tiffany, Xano, Valerie, Elliot, Chubs, Lil Bit, Dozer, and all of the others. Their lives mattered.

Stacy Wilson

Barnesville