Fort Bend County is due to get another animal shelter after county commissioners approved an agreement with Broaddus & Associates for the design of a new shelter building last month. James Knight, the county’s director of facilities, said Fort Bend County Judge Robert Hebert approached him last September about adding to the county’s two existing animal shelters. “We were wrapping up our capital improvement program planning, the judge approached me and asked me to start looking at a third building [for animal services],” Knight said. The new facility will provide the shelter’s veterinarian a bigger space to perform operations and the room needed for animals to recover from surgeries and procedures, said Rene Vasquez, the director of animal services. It will also allow space for sick animals to be treated separately from healthy animals. After evaluation, the commissioners court approved negotiations with engineering company Broaddus & Associates in June, Knight said. The total cost to build the new shelter, including architectural and engineering fees, comes to about $900,000, according to the contract. Knight said the design plans would be finalized in the next three or four months, with construction tentatively scheduled to begin in January and last through August. The design costs may not exceed $68,500, according to meeting documents. Currently, the county has two animal shelters at 1210 Blume Road in Rosenberg, Vasquez said. The two shelters house 42 cat cages and 39 divided kennels, which fit more than one animal at a time. The third shelter will be built adjacent to the existing shelters, Vasquez said. The shelters will not serve different purposes but will provide much needed space, he said. The current two shelters are at full capacity for much of the year, often housing over 200 animals at one time, he said. Fort Bend County’s biggest animal-related need is to have residents spay and neuter pets to control animal populations and to keep pets leashed in public spaces or microchipped so owners can track them, Vasquez said. The preliminary designs show the new shelter will be approximately 6,000 square feet, and will include 27 indoor and outdoor kennels along with 8 quarantine kennels—for housing sick animals—according to the agreement. The design also calls for additional space such as food preparation and storage space, bathing and grooming space, a birthing room, restrooms, a conference room, and a vet office and surgical suite, according to the agreement. Right now, the veterinarian does not have enough space needed to perform procedures such as spaying and neutering, Vasquez said. “We’re trying to get her everything that she needs for surgeries and recovery, which is one of the most important parts of her surgery,” he said. “We just want them to be comfortable and in a clean environment.” Vasquez said he also wanted more room for the animals. “In the front of the shelter, we want to do a big walking trail for the volunteers to be able to walk the dogs instead of walking them behind our building or in the little patch of grass that we have at the shelter currently,” Vasquez said. “We’re very excited.” Six engineering and construction firms submitted bids for this project, Knight said.