CONWAY -- A task force working to establish a Faulkner County animal shelter wants the Quorum Court to return the roughly $500,000 taken from a voluntary tax fund created to help finance the creation of a shelter.
Justices of the peace made no motion to consider anything relating to a shelter during a regularly scheduled meeting earlier this week. They also gave no public indication on whether they would do so soon.
County officials used the money to buy property at 324 S. German Lane in Conway in January but said a county shelter was two years away. In the interim, the county is letting the sheriff's office lease the facility and make renovations to suit that office's needs.
A lease had not been finalized as of Thursday, said David Hogue, the county attorney.
The county paid $499,025 for the property, closed on Jan. 18, with revenue from a voluntary 1.5-mill animal-shelter tax that began in 2006.
Donna Clawson, chairman of the Faulkner County Animal Shelter Advisory Board, told the Quorum Court earlier this week that it would be better for the county to let the sheriff's office have the building permanently and for the county to approve building its own shelter from scratch.
Clawson estimated it would cost $850,000 to build a shelter. The voluntary-tax shelter fund recently had a balance of $878,449.98, not counting the $499,025 the task force wants back.
"That will still leave us with money for that first year" of operating expenses, Clawson said.
"Not having a shelter ... is a public safety issue," Clawson said. Shortly after the Quorum Court meeting Tuesday night, a woman approached Clawson and told of being attacked by a pit bull terrier.
As it is, Clawson told justices of the peace, improvements to the recently bought property will have to be torn up in two years to retrofit it for a shelter. Even then, she said, more land is needed for large animals such as cows that may need rescue.
Besides, Clawson said, the purchased site is ideal for the sheriff's office, near the county's newer jail and the county court complex.
Clawson suggested that the Quorum Court let residents vote on whether to reallocate 10 percent of a half-percent sales tax that now is split 50-50 between roads and law enforcement needs. That 10 percent could go toward helping the shelter raise about $400,000 a year for operating expenses and any additional revenue could go wherever the Quorum Court believes it is most needed, she said.
Clawson said some voluntary taxpayers are frustrated at the lack of progress on establishing a shelter.
"We've actually had people say, 'I've contributed every year'" since the tax began. "'I'm not giving anymore.'"
At one point, Clawson asked Quorum Court members: "When you voted for this building, did you think it was for an animal shelter" or for the sheriff's office?
Silence followed. Then, Randy Higgins, who heads the court's public safety committee that deals with the shelter issue, noted the ordinance said it was for a shelter.
"But what did you think?" Clawson asked again.
"I think the one thing we didn't know was the cost" of what it was going to take to renovate the property being bought, Justice of the Peace Steve Goode said.
Higgins said he thought the Quorum Court was "pretty upfront" about needing to raise enough money for operating expenses before opening a shelter.
Hogue provided the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with an excerpt from an audiotape from the November meeting when the Quorum Court approved the property purchase. In the excerpt, Goode said he thought "everybody in the animal community" should understand "that this doesn't happen tomorrow" but also deserved to have a timeline.
Baker responded by saying, "It won't happen in the next two years" because of a lack of "a revenue stream." During that time, Baker said, the site would be a "temporary" location that would be rented.
Clawson countered that the task force needs the Quorum Court's help to raise the additional money for operating expenses -- first, by giving the task force the money from the shelter-tax fund to incorporate, establish a shelter board and comply with federal regulations so that it can accept donations for a shelter.
Further, renovations to make the building a shelter can't even begin while the sheriff's office is using it during the next two years, she said.
"We're set back 2½ years on what we can actually do," Clawson added.
She said opening a shelter also will mean some revenue from, for instance, pet adoptions.
State Desk on 02/23/2018