Diane Valden spends 988 words in The Columbia Paper on the history of counting dogs in Ancram in Columbia County. Currently, 1,573 residents there have registered only 40 dogs, and town officials are suspicious they are losing out on license fees. At the Oct. 16 town board meeting, Town Supervisor Art Bassin guessed that there could be as many as 500 unlicensed dogs and said that town Animal Control Officer Wes Powell gave him an estimate of $1,850 to properly count the dogs of Ancram. The town already pays Powell $4,120 to deal with its animal control issues. The town also spends $1,000 annually on fees when lost dogs are taken to the animal shelter. A license for a spayed or neutered dog costs $6 annually, un-neutered dogs, $16. In the story, Valden also recounts the legendary Ancram dog census in the late 1970s by Irene Dietter and her husband, Avery “Prope” Dietter, and another sometime in the 1980s led by Keith Morey, who was the dog warden at the time. Current Dog Control Officer Powell told The Columbia Paper he will come to the Nov. 20 board meeting to give an accounting of his dog enumeration procedures. Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.