The expansion project has been in the works for more than three years and is dependent upon the vote of all of the communities involved in the funding and administration of the shelter.
Plans showing the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter's expansion plans.[/caption]One of the aspects of the amendment is a shift in ownership from Williamson County as sole owner, to a proportional ownership amongst the communities that use the shelter—Williamson County with 48.96 percent, city of Round Rock with 27.23 percent, city of Cedar Park with 10.21 percent, city of Leander with 8.72 percent and city of Hutto with 4.88 percent ownership. The entities will also share proportional responsibility for maintenance and expansion of the shelter.
Design plans are set to begin fall of this year. Construction is planned to start late 2017, with completion of the expansion anticipated 18 months later, assuming the communities vote to proceed with the expansion.
Expansion plans currently call for greater space for dog and cat areas, improved surgical and veterinary care space, and repair of the shelter drainage and cooling systems.
“Basically [the drains] are not functioning properly. They are not draining down, and sometimes they are backing up often,” said Misty Valenta, community programs coordinator with the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter. “We have tried multiple methods to try to clear out the drains, to get it to get it flowing again, and we’ve been doing that sort of maintenance for a while now, and the assessment now is that they are just too old; they were made too small and need to be dug out and redone.”
The airflow system in the shelter was improperly designed from the onset, Valenta said, causing air from areas where sick animals are being housed and air from areas where healthy animals are housed to be mixed, creating a situation where the health of the shelter animals could be compromised.
Beyond the health and sanitation needs of the animals, space is an issue, Valenta said. The current shelter, which opened at full capacity in 2007, is 15,000 square feet and was designed to house 86 dogs and 107 cats. The shelter staff have tried to utilize space by retrofitting closets and storage spaces with kennels to house more animals and moving shelving units into hallways to store supplies.
An expanded facility would add a separate two-story wing to the shelter, which would allow for 170 dogs and 186 cats to be housed, and would reduce the need for the shelter to pair animals in kennels.
Total cost for the expansion is approximately $10 million, with each community paying a percentage.
