Construction for new animal shelter could begin next spring
By Cameron Montemayor
Plans are moving forward on a long-awaited new animal shelter as work nears the finish line on the final designs for the facility.
St. Joseph city officials said the hope is to have the $5 million project bid out for construction later this month or in December at the latest. City and shelter officials along with architect Ellison-Auxier are in the final stage of design for the 13,000-square-foot facility, according to interim city manager Clint Thompson.
“So you’re looking potentially at the availability of spring construction,” Thompson said. “The timeline for completion has yet to be determined based on the contractor selected and the process of how the facility is actually designed but it would be estimated at a 12-month project.”
The new shelter is designed with an additional 5,000 square feet of space, moving from the current 8,000-square-foot facility at 701 S.W. Lower Lake Road to an area by the St. Joseph Recycling Center at 3405 S. Belt Highway.
One of the last design decisions being finalized before bidding can begin is whether a veterinarian clinic can included within the $5 million budget or if it will have to be bid out separately as an alternate project. The city has allocated $3.4 million for construction, with the nonprofit group Friends of the Animal Shelter contributing $1.6 million.
“The vet clinic is a priority and a focus of the city and the Friends of the Shelter,” Thompson said. “We want to make sure that there is an opportunity if we’re not able to accomplish everything within that $5 million. The city has an opportunity to consider a future phase or a different way to look at how do we accomplish the total goal there.”
Thompson said the current animal shelter will be put on the market once the new building is constructed, marking the end of a more than decade-long process from when the concept of a new facility was first put forth.
“The closer we get to the steps of the process of bidding it out, it becomes more of a reality for us,” said Holly Bowie, animal control and rescue manager, “It’s very exciting, very promising and something we’ve been waiting for a long time.”
Bowie said thousands of additional square feet of space and changes in layout with the new shelter will not only boost the mobility and health of the animals, but provide a fully functional facility that benefits staff and the community.
“The animal housing is going to facilitate a better environment for our dogs and cats. They’re going to have more room to roam and we’ll have more efficiency with our cleaning,” she said. “We’ve added so many rooms that we currently don’t have that are going to make us so much more efficient and give the community a place to go to interact.”
Another improvement planned for the new shelter will see single rooms previously used for housing dogs upgraded to doubles, meaning dogs won’t have to be moved between cages when resting or using the restroom.
The new shelter also will address a longstanding issue with parking space and accommodating visitors.
“We don’t have a lot of parking places. Oftentimes when we have events, there’s no place to park. So even something as little as that is going to make a big difference,” she said.
