The Kalona City Council has approved an $805 increase in the budget to support PAWS and More animal shelter. During the January 21st council meeting, shelter director Amber Talbot requested an increase in funds due to the increased number of cats they served from Kalona last year. Talbott says the shelter saw a 60% increase in cat intake stemming from a mobile home community in Kalona. City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh says he’s spoken to the owner of the mobile home community and that they’ve worked to control the stray cat population.

Talbot and the council agreed that the spike was an outlier and that numbers have regressed back to normal. Talbot requested an $805 increase in annual funds and made another request for up to $5,000 to help cover what the shelter had to spend last year to accommodate the stray cats.

The council approved the $805 annual request and denied allocating any additional funds. With the increase, Kalona will now provide $4,305 this year to assist the shelter. The council also agreed to monitor the stray animal intake from Kalona to try and prevent the shelter from having to bare another major animal increase.