BENTONVILLE -- The three elected members of the new Animal Shelter Task Force met for the first time Friday to organize the work ahead of it.
Chris Sooter, City Council chairman, appointed council members Bill Burckart, Stephanie Orman and Tim Robinson to the task force May 8. The three agreed to a list of eight other names and organizations to be a part of the group looking at what it would take to build and maintain an animal shelter in Bentonville. The task force will look at who would need to be involved and how the facility would operate.
Task Force members
• Deborah Billingsly with BARC
• Romaine Kobilsek with Spay Arkansas
• Bobby Critselous with Three Dog Bakery
• Lee Harper with Village Pet Hospital
• Kristin Switzer with NWA Dog Walk
• Steven Galen with Bissell Pet Foundation
The representatives from Best Friends Animal Society and the Walton Family Foundation have not been determined yet.
Source: Staff report
Burckart presented a schedule of main tasks to be accomplish if a shelter were to be built and opened by May 2021 when the city's contract to use Centerton's Animal Shelter expires.
"It's tight, but it's doable," he said.
Bentonville is the only one of Northwest Arkansas' four largest cities without an animal shelter. Animal control officers have been taking lost and stray dogs to the Rogers Animal Shelter for 10 years. It began a three-year contract with Centerton on May 1.
Animal advocates opposed the contract and asked council to at least look into what it would take for the city to have a shelter.
The three members discussed Friday a previous shelter proposal never acted upon as well as a needs assessment done by Best Friends Animal Society that could provide the task force with a starting point.
The assessment goes into the need for a shelter, the appropriate size it would be and how much land would be required, but it doesn't address who or how it would be built, the group said.
Robinson said he didn't think raising money for the initial capital cost for a building would be a problem.
"I think it's the ongoing operations that will be the challenge," he said.
Task force members agreed its members will likely lead sub-groups focusing on aspects needing to be addressed, such as the services the shelter would provide, the facility itself and financing.
The task force will hold two community meetings to gather feedback. The group is expected to make a recommendation to City Council in October.
All of the task force meetings are open to the public as required by the Freedom of Information Act since there's more than one City Council member on it.
The next meeting will be between May 22 and June 7. Robinson said he would see what the availability of the other members would be before setting a date.
NW News on 05/12/2018