Fort Stewart and Long County are working together via an Intergovernmental Support Agreement (IGSA) for Long County to provide animal control services on Fort Stewart.

Last week, Long County Board of Commissioner Chairman Robert Parker and Fort Stewart Garrison Commander Col Bryan Logan held a groundbreaking ceremony at the construction site of the new animal control building and signed the IGSA which went into effect Sept. 1.

The new building is adjacent to the current animal control facility on Kennel Lane.

“We’ve partnered with Fort Stewart to complete this project,” Parker said. “We will handle their animal control and in return their partnership with us is to help us build a new facility.”

Parker also credited Ludowici Bank for their assistance in the partnership. Parker said the partnership will allow them to provide better services to the citizens of Long County and Fort Stewart.

Parker said a similar project could have cost the County anywhere between $300-400K if they had to fund it on their own.

“But by partnering with the federal government there will be a substantial savings to both federal and local taxpayers,” he said.

Parker said the new building should be complete by the end of this year or the beginning of 2021.

Col Logan said this is just one example or several IGSA they’ve signed with Chatham, Bryan. Liberty and Long Counties.

“Intergovernmental Service Agreements are partnerships between local communities and our base,” Logan said. “It is a vehicle to lower costs and administrative fees that we usually have for service contracts that we conduct on post here and at Hunter Army Airfield. The stray animal control (partnership) is one example of that. It comes down to money savings for both entities and strengthening relationships. We have a veterinary clinic on post. Their primary purpose is to take care of our military working dogs. They also take care of our personal dogs, but stray animal control is strictly going to be with Long county.”

According to a press release from Fort Stewart’s Public Affairs Office there are 66 IGSAs in operation dating to the initial IGSA in 2015. Following the implementation of the two-short term IGSAs, Stewart-Hunter leads Installation Management Command in total IGSAs in

place. IMCOM-Directorate Readiness leads the four IMCOM directorates with 39

IGSAs with $18.4M saved to date. IGSAs are a cooperative way to strengthen our communities that allow installations to focus on ensuring the readiness of military units.

Logan said Fort Stewart and HAAF have saved roughly 2.2 million dollars across the board on the four local IGSAa they’ve signed so far.

Earlier this year Fort Stewart / HAAF signed a IGSA with the City of Hinesville for lawn maintenance on post.