Montville — Town officials are developing a deal that would allow Montville’s animal control officer to respond to animal calls in Salem and bring them to Montville’s animal shelter.

Salem First Selectman Kevin Lyden said Wednesday that he and Montville Mayor Ronald McDaniel have been developing the deal for months as a more efficient alternative to the current deal Salem has with Colchester.

An animal control officer now works part-time in Salem and part-time in Colchester.

Sending Salem’s lost or abandoned animals to Montville makes sense because the two towns border each other and Montville’s full-time officer, Christian Swanson, would be able to respond to any calls that come in while she’s on duty.

“They’re looking for something a little more permanent,” McDaniel said.

McDaniel said he is working with Swanson’s union, the Montville Association of Management Employees, to revise her contract to reflect the additional duties.

Once the deal is finalized, Swanson's jurisdiction will be increased to include Salem, but all other aspects of the job would remain unchanged.

McDaniel said based on an assessment of animal control calls in Montville, Swanson responded to 93 calls in July and impounded 13 animals at the town’s Maple Avenue kennel.

The volume of calls and impoundments depends on the time of year, Swanson said, but she said adding Salem’s calls should be manageable.

“It makes a lot of sense,” she said.

Lyden said the partnership would strengthen the relationship between the two neighboring towns as municipalities in the region work to save money by regionalizing services.

“I think it’ll be a positive for Montville and a positive for Salem,” Lyden said. “These are the things we have to continue to do. It can’t be business as usual. We have to look at ways to stretch our taxpayers’ dollars.”

McDaniel said he also has agreed on a deal with Waterford that would allow the neighboring town's police department to route animal control calls to Swanson's office two days a week for the next several months while the new joint Waterford-East Lyme animal control officer completes mandatory training.

Waterford and East Lyme have shared an animal control officer and shelter for many years, and renegotiated the interlocal agreement describing the job after longtime Waterford police Animal Control Officer Robert Yuchniuk announced he would retire in March.

McDaniel said Swanson will take calls that Waterford police can't respond to until the new animal control officer completes training in October.

In May, East Lyme and Waterford officials said Yuchniuk's replacement will be a civilian East Lyme employee.

m.shanahan@theday.com