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Council approves plans for new animal shelter
After nearly four years of work, efforts to build a new animal shelter in Mountain Home continued to move forward after the city council approved the facility's final plans.
With work currently expected to begin later this year, the 3,700-square-foot shelter would be built on a piece of city property on Elmcrest Street near West 5th North Street.
"It's been a long process, but it will be nice" when complete, said Mountain Home Animal Shelter Supervisor Danniele Strain.
Efforts to build the facility began several years ago after the city received nearly $600,000 through an anonymous contribution from a former Mountain Home resident. Those funds are expected to fully cover the construction costs.
The shelter project remained on hold for nearly 18 months after the initial design far exceeded those available funds. It essentially required city officials to essentially scrap the original proposal and start over.
To keep the project within the budget, design revisions trimmed approximately 1,000 square feet of the building's office space without sacrificing space needed for dogs and cats.
"From day one... our primary concern was to make sure that the area for the animals is the best that we can make it," said Mountain Home Police Chief Nick Schilz in a previous interview with the Mountain Home News.
"We're very excited. It'll be a very good thing for the animals," Strain said.
The current shelter on South Main Street was limited to one building until the second facility was added in the 1990s, Strain said. It has enough space to accommodate 28 dogs and up to 30 cats but only if the shelter puts more than one animal in each kennel.
Originally, city police looked at expanding that existing complex. However, that plan ran into significant hurdles since the building is located on a flood plain, Schilz said.
The additional work required to build in that area "would've cost a ton of money," Schilz added. "It was decided that if we're going to spend that much money then we should go to another location that's out of the flood plain."
Meanwhile, the facility's location on Elmcrest Street gives the city the flexibility to enlarge the shelter if needed.
"We'll also be in a better location for the public," Strain said. "It's going to be more accessible for the public and a lot easier to find."
The new facility would also alleviate concerns with the existing building's condition. For example, the current air conditioning system wasn't designed to provide adequate ventilation for animals, and the building is not very energy efficient.
At the same time, the new facility will be significantly easier to keep clean while preventing sick dogs or cats from spreading illnesses to other animals.
It currently takes the animal shelter staff a minimum of two hours a day to clean the kennels. During that process, six of the shelter's existing dog kennels are reserved specifically as a holding area for canines because their pens are cleaned each day.
That poses cross-contamination issues as the dogs are moved during that daily routine. At the same time, it causes significant stress on sheltered felines since the dogs tend to bark at them as they are moved, according to Strain.
"It's going to be a lot more efficient," Strain said. "This is going to be much more cost effective time wise."
The shelter will feature other improvements.
The fully covered dog kennels, for example, will include indoor as well as outdoor space which the existing shelter lacks.
While the proposed shelter won't gain any additional kennel space for dogs and cats, it does gain adoption rooms specifically tailored for both types of animals -- something the existing facility also lacks. Resembling areas seen in pet stores, those rooms will allow potential owners to socialize with shelter animals before they decide to adopt.
That feature is expected to significantly help with cat adoptions, according to Strain.
"People come in to look at a cat, and there's nowhere for them to take them out and play with them," she said. And since they're located so close to the dog kennels, the cats are typically frightened by the barking.
Having adoption rooms located well away from the kennels will give owners a more accurate picture of how well a dog or cat actually behaves, Strain said.
Other features outlined in the proposed facility design include a separate section for small dogs or puppies. That would allow the shelter to save its main kennels for larger, adult canines. Currently, all dogs end up in the kennels, regardless of their size.
Meanwhile, the main dog kennels will include three separate areas to help prevent the spread of illnesses and parasites from one dog to the next. A quarantine area will house ailing canines with a dedicated holding area for stray animals and an adoption area where people can see which dogs are available for immediate adoption.
If everything remains on track, the shelter staff expects construction on the new facility to start later this year.