WilCo animal shelter looking to phase in upgrades

Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter staffers are working on a phased-in version of proposed shelter improvements presented to city leaders in the summer.

Director of Animal Services Cheryl Schneider said feedback she got from cities that use the shelter, including Cedar Park, Hutto, Leander and Round Rock, is that city leaders felt the $14.3 million expansion Schneider and Williamson County Commissioner Valerie Covey presented in the summer was too costly in a short amount of time.

Now, the county shelter is studying a phased approach to shelter improvements, with one improvement happening about every 10 years, Schneider said.

“What the architect is doing now is they’ll start a phased-in, scaled-down model and see what that would look like in terms of cost,” Schneider said. “They’ll work on something through April and present sometime then.”

Schneider said the initial phase will address the shelter’s biggest need, which is space. She said staffers are looking to expand the space for dogs and cats as well as the surgery suite.

“We can make do with whatever is presented to us, what the board approves, and what the cities will pay for,” Schneider said.

Since the shelter opened in 2007, the county and the cities of Cedar Park, Hutto, Leander and Round Rock have participated in funding the shelter. Round Rock would likely contribute the most amount of money out of the participating cities to shelter upgrades because each city’s payment for the upgrades will be based on a its previous percentage of animals sent to the shelter.

The facility offers adoption services as well as grant-supported spaying and neutering for dogs and cats.