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Circleville Council Vote in Special Meeting to An Agreement to Possibly Send Harry Home

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CIRCLEVILLE – Circleville Council met tonight in a special meeting to discuss the sale of the K9 Harry to Pickaway County Sheriff who would use the dog with K9 officer Morningstar.


A unauthorized deal from a outside source originally offered more than 20,000 dollars for the sale of Harry from Pickaway County Sheriff, that deal was thrown out before the start of the meeting, but discussions continued with the Pickaway County Sheriff Rob Radcliff on interest in purchasing the dog.

Circleville City Councilwoman Katie Logan Hedges spearheaded the fact finding and the minimum cost to sell Harry to the Sheriff without losing the City of Circleville money and the ability to purchase a new K9 for the City of Circleville.

“Since we last met two important things have happened. The first being that council received what was referred to as “an unauthorized offer” between receiving that offer and today we have been told from a representative that is speaking in behalf of the Morningstar’s that offer was given with no authority from them. So we are disregarding anything from that offer.” 

“The second thing we have found out is that the training facility is now able to obtain a new dog and train a dog with a handler we already have on the Circleville Police Departments force in a 6 to 8 week timeframe. That is obviously much sooner that we were previously told from the fall or winter date. Still not as soon as we could if we kept Harry but it is much more reasonable, in that same regard we have word from Sheriff Radcliff that he will be able to make a Pickaway County Sheriff office K9 available should we need it proactively and reactively. We did receive a quote from the training facility of a value of Harry at 13,000 dollars because he would still be valued as a newer dog because he is so young,” said Katie Logan Hedges. 

According to Hedges that the minimum amount to get a new “green dog” into the city of Circleville it would cost 13,000 dollars, one thousand of that would have to be paid by the City of Circleville to train a new handler, so the minimum the K9 Harry could be offered to the Sheriffs and Morningstar was 12,000 dollars, or the city would take a loss.

Circleville Police Chief Baer said that after Tuesday night’s meeting he sent one of the newly hired experienced K9 handlers to Pennsylvania to work with Harry to get him back on the streets by next week, because of this agreement Baer will stop that training until City Council could vote on this agreement in a special session on Tuesday night at 7 pm.

According to Gayle Spangler, Auditor Officer Morningstar signed a five year agreement with the City of Circleville when he becomes a K9 handler to cover the costs of having the dog, because Morningstar left after 36 months Morningstar broke that agreement and owed the city around 7,000 dollars. The city is using the 12,000 dollars to wipe that contact clean and the extra monies to purchase a new dog for Circleville.

Circleville Police Chief Shawn Baer said that the K9 Trainers were able to get a replacement dog for them and they could have that dog within 6 to 8 weeks.

Circleville City Councilwoman Katie Logan Hedges made a deal with the Sheriff to cover any K9 needs the City of Circleville had in those 6 to 8 weeks.

An agreement to sell the K9 Harry to the Pickaway County Sheriff for the total not less than 12,000 dollars was voted unanimously 6-0.

You can listen to the entire meeting here: