SPRINGDALE — Capacity of the Springdale Animal Shelter will almost double following renovation to an old shelter building.
At A Glance
Animal Services Budget
The proposed 2013 expense budget is $698,760, including $363,565 in payroll. The staff included 11 people in 2012, with an additional two animal caretakers proposed for the new year.
Source: City Of Springdale
The City Council approved Tuesday spending $121,000 to renovate the building behind the shelter. The building was used as the shelter before construction of the newer building.
The money will also pay for an exhaust system for the existing building, said Courtney Kremer, animal services manager.
“This will buy us more time to adopt out our animals or find a foster home for them,” Kremer said. “The hardest thing to do is to make decisions on which animal to keep when we run out of space.”
The euthanasia rate was about 50 percent when Kremer started in September.
The shelter can hold about 30 dogs and 27 cats, Kremer said. Renovation to the old building will add room for 15 to 20 dogs and probably 20 cats, she said.
Della Jordan, a shelter volunteer, said the space is needed for the growing number of pets loose in the city. Jordan was walking Annie Oakley, a friendly white pit bull, around the building on a leash.
“This area has grown so much since the shelter was built,” Jordan said. “The town has probably doubled in size.”
The back building will house animals new to the shelter. After they are ready for adoption, the animals will be moved to the front building.
“We would take an owner to the back building to look for their lost animal, but for the most part, the public wouldn’t be in the back,” Kremer said.
The back building will also house dogs that are held under court order or for rabies observation. Six pens in the front building are now used for those animals, Kremer said.
Those animals go back to the owners or are euthanized, Kremer said.
Each day an animal is in those holding pens is another day an adoptable animal could be euthanized, said Kathy Jaycox, a City Council member. Jaycox is a volunteer with For Pets’ Sake, an organization that finds foster homes for shelter animals.
All the animals may be moved back to the renovated building for a short time, Kremer said. The walls in the front building need to be painted and the floors sealed. Fumes from the work would not be good for the animals, Kremer said.
The additional space will also allow the shelter to renovate the cat and puppy room, Kremer said. The shelter received $50,000 in memory of Celia Grace Dollins from her parents, Stephen and Cara Dollins. The family has been patient, Kremer said, waiting until space was found to house the cats and puppies during the renovation.
The new space will not cure the problem of too many animals running loose in the city, Kremer said.
“Animals are going to keep on coming in,” Kremer said. “People will bring them in the front and animal control officers will bring them in the back. The space will buy us some time with animals we can adopt and give us some flexibility.”