BENTONVILLE -- Partnerships will play a crucial role to creating a successful animal shelter, members of the city's animal shelter task force said Wednesday.
Task force members presented its most up-to-date work during a public meeting at the Bentonville Community Center on Wednesday evening. About 80 people attended.
Meeting Information
The animal shelter task force will present its findings and make a recommendation to City Council at its Nov. 13 meeting.
The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in the Community Development Building at 305 S.W. A St.
Source: Staff Report
The task force is recommending a hybrid ownership model where the city will provide and operate certain basic animal services and a nonprofit organization will operate the shelter, provide more programming and seek private funding, said Bill Burckart, a member of the task force and City Council.
Bentonville contracts with Centerton to take lost and stray dogs to its animal shelter. The three-year contract has a base fee of $300,000 plus $100 for each dog transported to the shelter.
Bentonville residents expect their own shelter with a healthy intake system, adoption programs, services for cats, volunteer programs and low-cost clinic services, Burckart said, referring to a community survey that more than 800 people took.
"This is the lowest level of service that needs to be achieved," Burckart said.
Additional desired services include convenient and accessible services such as evening operational hours, partnerships with social service organizations, services to help keep pets from being surrendered and community education and activities.
The annual operational budget for other area shelters ranged from $450,000 to $1 million, Burckart said. Bentonville's budget will be on the low end of that, likely between $450,000 to $550,000 to provide basic services.
"Everything above that will be the responsibility of our partners," he said. "It is the public-private relationships that will make this work."
Best Friends Animal Society, a national nonprofit animal welfare organization, has helped guide the task force and could possibly be the organization to run the shelter.
Holly Sizemore, the society's chief mission officer, said society representatives have been excited about the dedicated rescue organizations, engaged citizens and interested council members in Bentonville.
"This is the kind of landscape that is prime for a successful partnership," she said.
There are, however, more discussions about details that need to take place before an agreement is finalized to make sure the interests of each entity can be met, Sizemore later added when asked by an audience member why the society wouldn't be the one to run the shelter.
There was nearly an hour for a question-and-answer session.
Brent Toellner, senior director of national programs for the society, outlined key future dates in order for a shelter to be built and open by the time the city's contract with Centerton expires in May 2021.
The task force will make a recommendation to move forward at the Nov. 13 City Council meeting. Contracts for the design of the building should be approved by April, and construction needs to begin by March 2020, he said.
Building estimates weren't given at Wednesday's meeting, but Burckart said there will be a capital campaign to raise money. Part of the task force's job will be to fundraise, he said.
"We have a lot of big donors, but we need everybody invested in this," he said.
NW News on 10/25/2018