Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

The Champion, Thursday, July 2 - 8, 2015 LOCAL Page 3A Pet Buddies expands into DeKalb by Ashley Oglesby ashley@dekalb champ, com Pet Buddies cofounder and executive director Heather Koehler and co founder Dee McGowan were both volunteers for county shelters where they witnessed animals being turned in because their owners could no longer af ford to take care of them. That’s when the two decided to open Pet Buddies Food Pantry. Since 2010, the orga nization has spayed and neutered more than 1,000 animals around Atlanta. In August 2015 Pet Buddies will begin donating pet food in East Atlanta and Decatur. The nonprofit, volun teer-based organization works with low-income families, seniors, disabled and homeless individuals to assist with food and medical needs for their pets. Koehler said, “We ini tially started Pet Buddies to get pet food to families that could not afford it. We also incorporated spaying and neutering because at the end of the day if we are not spaying and neutering a lot of these animals begin pro creating. What happens with a lot of communities that we work in, when the animal starts to have kittens or pup pies they’re going to end up in an animal shelter.” She added, “Some of the animal shelters here in Georgia, if the animals are under two pounds they’re immediately euthanized so they don’t even get a chance.” Koehler said Pet Bud dies’ mission is to decrease the number of cats and dogs on the streets and entering animal control due to finan cial hardships. “We reach out to under served communities to edu cate, donate pet food, offer free spay and neuter, flea medicine and anything else the family needs.” She added, “When we have additional funding, we trap, neuter and return cats, build fencing for chained dogs, provide dog housing and winter help for animals that live outdoors.” Pet Buddies assists an average of 100 families a month. Every animal that goes through the Pet Bud dies program is required to be spayed or neutered, if they aren’t the organization pays for it. “Pet Buddies has no overhead. Our storage is at our homes. We all have full time careers, so our efforts are 100 percent volunteer. Due to this, the money goes directly to the animals that desperately need it in our community,” Koehler said. She added, “All of our volunteers help pick up food from people that have done donation drives or donated specifically to our program. We have bins around town where people donate, our volunteers pick up the food and we store it at our houses. We donate the food quickly, so we don’t need a storage area because we’re constantly donating food.” Pet Buddies delivers donations once a month. However, Koehler said, “We always have people who send in their applications who say they’re feeding their animal bread or their pets haven’t eaten in a couple of days. We’re constantly filling in these emergency situa tions every day, bringing food to people that need it right there and then.” Koehler said Pet Bud dies’ food pantry is always in the need of donations and volunteers. For additional informa tion about Pet Buddies Food Pantry visit petbuddiesfood- pantry.org. LIKE US ON FACEBOOK! f CHAMPIONNEWSPAPER Joseph and his dog JoJo are a part of the Pet Buddies program. Joseph also assists the food pantry with distributing food. Pet Buddies recently hosted a trailer park program which helped more than 100 animals get spayed and neutered. icthdmittipwiiy-” Donation stations for Pet Buddies’ food pantry. j f a mr - r I] 3p _ M ** — l-Wl NOTICE OF PROPERTY TAX INCREASE The DeKalb County Board of Commissioners has tentatively adopted a millage rate which will require an increase in property taxes by 40.00 percent. All concerned citizens are invited to the public hearings on this tax increase to be held at the Manuel Maloof Auditorium, 1300 Commerce Drive, Decatur, GA 30030 on July 14, 2015 at 10:00 am. This tentative increase will result in a millage rate of 11.683 mills, an increase of 3.338 mills. Without this tentative tax increase, the millage rate will be no more than 8.345 mills. The proposed tax increase for a home with a fair market value of $175,000 is approximately $111.36 and the proposed tax increase for non-homestead property with a fair market value of $250,000 is approximately $273.72. This increase is due to a temporary shift in millages done in FY 2014 to keep the total tax rate constant or smaller. DeKalb County has seven basic tax levies. Only two are used in this required calculation. In 2014, these two rates combined went down from 11.51 to 9.02 while other rates were increased temporarily. In 2015, the two rates combined went back up to 11.28 which still are below the 2014 rate. This upward shift requires an advertisement of an increase. When all seven levies are added together the typical resident will see a decrease from 21.21 to 20.81 mills in 2015.