Kendall County officials weigh $2 increase for rabies tags

Kendall County officials might raise the price for getting required rabies tags for cats and dogs, hoping to improve county animal control’s finances as the agency remains without a director.

The cost of rabies tags would rise $2 in 2022 should the Kendall County Board approve the measure at a meeting later this month. One year tags would cost $12 for spayed animals, with a three-year tag available for $30.

Officials said during a board meeting on Tuesday, May 4 that the increase was necessary to help pay mandated salary and wage increases for staff at Kendall County Animal Control at 802 John Street, Yorkville. The agency remains under-staffed already, required to have someone working 24/7. Further impacting animal control, only one volunteer is allowed to work at the agency under current COVID-19 restrictions.

“We’ve looked at every angle of this and there’s just no way to provide the services that we’re providing now at the same cost,” said County Board Member Amy Cesich, who chairs the board’s animal control committee.

“You don’t want to at some point say instead of a $2 increase we got to go to $10 because we’re so far behind, and we just really didn’t want to do that,” Cesich remarked.

Even with the increase, though, fees for rabies tags in Kendall County are far lower than most neighboring counties, officials said. Grundy and DuPage County charge $15 for tags, with DeKalb County charing $20, according to County Administrator Scott Koeppel.

The fee hike isn’t the only new development at Kendall County Animal Control. Former director Laura Pawson resigned in April, and board members approved a revised job description, hoping to fill the post as soon as possible.

“We’d like to get someone in there that we can keep for the long term,” Cesich said, adding that the position’s salary would depend on an applicant’s experience. “We’ve worked really well to get the staff over there happy, the animals happy. The building looks beautiful. So now we’re trying to move forward and make sure we never have the problems that we had 10, 12, 15 years ago.”