Committee decides animal shelter ownership model

BENTONVILLE -- The local animal shelter will be owned by a third party and sit on private land if the city adopts a committee's recommendations.

The Pet Resource and Services Steering Committee discussed three possible ownership models for the land and building at a meeting Friday.

Other options included the city owning both the building and the land and the city buying the building after a third party builds it.

The option of the city owning both the building and land was quickly dismissed because the committee decided the best location would be on Walmart-owned land on Southwest Eighth Street west of North Walton Boulevard.

Committee members said Walmart is open to allowing some of the land to be used for an animal shelter.

The committee includes city staff from several departments including legal, police, public works and finance. It also includes animal advocates, a veterinarian and representatives of the Walton Family Foundation and Best Friends Animal Society, a national nonprofit animal welfare organization.

The option of split ownership would have a third party lead the design and construction process of the building, and the city would buy it for $2 million after it was completed then lease space to an organization to run the shelter.

The committee previously discussed asking the city to contribute $2 million toward construction of the project.

The option favored by the committee, a third party owning the building on private land, would have the city leasing space in a shelter built by the third party, according to meeting documents.

The lease rate could be paid in full at the beginning of the project to help with the construction cost of the building, said Tim Robinson, committee chairman.

A formula proffered that a 20-year lease would provide an advance payment of nearly $2 million.

"There's not going to be a major cost difference in what the city should pay," Robinson said. "It's just a different way to think about it in terms of they don't own the building."

Committee members emphasized the numbers given in the formula were not final figures.

There would also be an agreement between the city and the third party running the shelter that would include a base fee and a fee per animal brought to the shelter, Robinson said.

It would be similar to how the city contracts with Centerton's animal shelter, which takes Bentonville's lost and stray dogs, he said. He added the dollar amount will likely be higher than what the city is paying Centerton.

The city's three-year contract with Centerton has a base fee of $300,000 plus $100 for each dog taken to the shelter. It began in May 2018.

City staff is comfortable with any of the three options, said Jake Harper, city director of finance and administration. He said the determination of who owns the building should be a committee decision.

"As you look at any of the three options, we believe the city can be taken care of," he said.

Bill Burckart, City Council and committee member, said he believed the third-party ownership option was the most straight forward.

"It's similar to what we're doing today," he said, explaining the city's animal services officers would provide basic services, but anything beyond them, such as programming and community education and activities, will be provided by the third party operator.

The city would need to still solicit bids for the third party service provider if it owned the building, Robinson said. It would be easier to ask for a wavier to that bidding requirement if the service provider constructed the building.

"It makes that part easier later down the road," he said. "From beginning to end, you know who you're going to be working with."

There has been talk about Best Friends being the center's operator, but an agreement hasn't been made.

The committee will ask the City Council for approval of its selected direction in April or May.

NW News on 03/16/2019