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Animal shelter meets with county MondayLisa NyrenTVN Staff

Members of the Targhee Animal Shelter board are scheduled to go before the Teton County Commissioners Monday and discuss the shelter’s future. The meeting will come just two weeks after the shelter board announced it had to close its doors because it ran out of money.

“The bottom line is that we need to inform you of our recent decision regarding the shelter due to an immediate lack of funding,” board members wrote in a letter to the Board of County Commissioners May 28. No explanation of the “immediate lack of funding” was offered in the letter.

Since that letter, however, three of the six board members have resigned from their positions. Danielia Kotler resigned prior to TAS’s announcement of closure, and Theresa Paradis and Tori Foley

Shelter continued on A17

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Summer music roundup ThurSday, JunE 9, 2011

Sheriff shares animal control ideas

Ken LevyTVN Staff

Being a responsible dog owner may have its rewards, but letting your dogs run wild could take a big bite out of your pocketbook.

Teton County Sheriff Tony Liford gathered several key ideas from a three-

day National Animal Control Association Conference he attended in Reno, Nev.

last month, prior to the news of the Targhee Animal Shelter’s closure last week.

Those ideas could lead to new animal-control ordinances in the cities and county.

“The model we’re looking at is responsible pet ownership,” Liford said, in an interview. “We have to really put the onus on the pet owner to be responsible, that they license and identify their dogs, and that their dogs are not a nuisance.”

Animal control continued on A17

Ken LevyTVN Staff

Teton County Sheriff Tony Liford spoke to the Driggs City Council Tuesday about a possible solicitor or peddler’s license requirement before door-to-door salespeople can go knocking in the cities.

“We get calls from citizens in the county suspicious of persons coming up to their door and trying to sell them something,” Liford said in an interview.

These include people who have been rude or pushy to the point that they’ve made the homeowner or resident uncomfortable enough that they either called the sheriff’s department or contacted them at a later date to ask about these people, he said.

Liford said he checked into a complaint last summer regarding door-to-door salespeople and found that “one of the gentlemen had a warrant out of Colorado.”

Although the warrant wasn’t for an extraditable offense, “it made it clear to me that this gentleman shouldn’t be knocking on people’s doors,” Liford said. “I asked them to leave and they did.”

The sheriff told the council that he’s had three calls this year so far regarding door-to-door salespeople. One incident, regarding salespeople offering organic cleaners, involved a man who was later arrested for rape in Idaho Falls.

Liford said that, while the problem isn’t

widespread in the county, “we’ve gotten enough calls about them and I’ve spoken to residents enough that it’s an issue. I’d like to address that issue. Folks have a right to know who’s walking up to their door.”

The proposal, if enacted, would require would-be door-to-door salespeople to apply for a peddler’s license with the city

clerk’s office, after which the sheriff’s office would vet the person or company with a background check. Peddlers would pay an as-yet undetermined fee and post a surety bond with the cities, and would have to have a sales tax number.

That way, he said, they’d have

visible identification “and people could feel comfortable that if someone came up to their door, they know the local law enforcement has checked this person out, and the company they’re representing is a legitimate company.”

Liford said the license requirement wouldn’t apply to religious organizations because of freedom of speech issues. Steve Zollinger, Driggs attorney, said Rexburg has similar ordinances, and there is a list of other groups that may be exempt from the requirement.

The citiees will decide whether to go forward with ordinances. Liford was due to speak to the Victor City Council Wednesday night. The county is researching the license requirement as well, he said.

To contact Ken Levy emailreporter3@tetonvalleynews.net.

Liford eyes licensing door-to-door salespeople

TVN stock photo