Aug 29, 2023

New St. Joseph animal shelter not a reality, yet

Posted Aug 29, 2023 7:04 PM

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

St. Joseph City Manager Bryan Carter says the city hasn’t forgotten about a proposal to build a new animal shelter. Carter says the city simply has run into a funding issue.

Friends of the Animal Shelter has raised $1.5 million to fund replacing the existing shelter it describes as noisy and crowded with a new one.

Carter, though, says the cost has skyrocketed, from the projected $2.5 million to between $5 million and $6 million.

Carter says the funding gap is getting in the way of an upgrade.

“We have a problem now and it’s a problem related to the amount of funding that’s available for the project that needs to be done,” Carter tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “And we have to look at all solutions.”

Carter says the cost of locating a new animal shelter, proposed for Corporate Drive, has at least doubled.

“We know we’ve gone a long way down this road,” Carter says. “We know that the Friends of the Animal Shelter has done an excellent job of getting out boots on the ground, fundraising, putting together a lot of money.”

Carter says the problem now is that’s not enough money. Carter says the city retains $1 million from the 2018 CIP list and must find enough money to build an animal shelter that will be a real improvement over the current facility in south St. Joseph.

Carter says more money must be raised the city must be assured the new shelter is a true upgrade from the current shelter.

“We have to analyze the plan, make sure that we’re pursuing the right plan and that it is going to work,” Carter says. “And that’s the conversations that go back to what corners can be cut? Is that the right facility? All of those pieces that are encompassed in that and then there’s the fact that we have to figure out where the rest of the money is coming from.”

It has been a frustrating delay for Friends of the Animal Shelter which first discussed building a new shelter with city officials more than 10 years ago.

A member of Friends of the Animal Shelter, Lucinda Kerns, urges citizens to remind the St. Joseph City Council of the importance of a new shelter.

“If you can keep contacting the council and let them know that you are behind us, you support us, you want it, you’d love to see it for the community,” Kerns says. “It would help us out, I think.”