By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Talks of a new St. Jospeh animal shelter might not be done yet.
Inflation proved to be a roadblock too big for the prospects of a new animal shelter to hurdle. But one city official says he believes there's still hope.
At Large St. Joseph City Councilmember Marty Novak says he's optimistic the city council can still come up with a plan for a new animal shelter
"And it may not be exactly the picture we were looking at, but there is a way that we can come up with a new animal shelter," Novak tells host of the KFEQ Hotline Barry Birr.
Novak says while he doesn't know the exact solution like where it would be or what it would look like
"I know it's forefront that we do need a new animal shelter," Novak says.
Talks stalled after inflation pushed the total for a new animal shelter to nearly six million dollars, with the city unwilling to put more money toward it.
Novak says everyone needs to work together to make a new animal shelter possible.
"We need to figure out what we can do in order to make this happen, I as with all the other councilmembers, are all in favor of moving forward with a new animal shelter, but we've got to be prudent about what we're doing and what we're spending," Novak says. "That money, that CIP money, is still earmarked for an animal shelter it has not gone away."
Novak hopes a work session can be called soon to discuss the shelter.
Novak says the council knows the benefit a new shelter would bring, and the purpose of the meeting would be to discuss what the council can do.
"Maybe this particular building is not the right way to go, I don't know, that was what was presented to us, maybe there's a different facility that we can go through which we can all accomplish the same thing," Novak explains. "But it's going to take everybody working together jointly to make this happen."
Novak acknowledges that this is a very important project and a meeting focusing on just the animal shelter will be vital to coming up with a solution.