CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The long-running effort to establish a new animal shelter for the city of Clearlake took a major step forward on Thursday, when the council approved a staff proposal for a new facility.
Aiding that proposal is a $10,000 pledge toward the project from the Animal Coalition of Lake County, whose members were credited with playing a key role in assessing shelter options as part of the city’s Animal Control Ad Hoc Committee.
Clearlake Police Chief Andrew White, whose department oversees Clearlake Animal Control, took this next phase in the “long discussed project” to the council on Thursday.
The discussion begins at the 26:20 mark in the video above. The staff report is on page 136 of the agenda packet published below.
White said a new and improved shelter was a priority project when he was hired last year, adding he was pleased to report its progress.
The city’s animal shelter is housed in an old hangar building at the Public Works Corporation Yard, located on the city’s former Pearce Field airport site.
“Clearly the facility was not built for the current use and we lack adequate space to take the volume of animals that are taken in,” said White.
The indoor areas often are doubled up over the intended capacity of eight kennels, he said. There is no space for the city’s new contract vet to do exams and lack of space for quarantine.
Over the past year the city started working with an ad hoc committee to narrow down new shelter options, and find something financially feasible and sustainable. White said the Animal Coalition has been involved in that effort, advocating both for animals and the community’s needs in a new facility.
He said the options they considered included relocating the facility to a site in Ogulin Canyon, moving to a building next door to City Hall, renovating current buildings or building new ones.
The proposal that White said was the one that the committee and city staff agreed upon is to purchase and install two modular kennel buildings with heating and cooling, a combined capacity of 18 kennel boxes and 18 runs, a storage room, cat room, exam room and lobby area, an office, proper fencing, Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant access, new pathways and walkways, and landscaping.
There would need to be some relocating of utilities and the demolition of the current office, but the cost overall, said White, is nominal for the proposed improvements.
He said the city engineer’s office helped with the site plan and project estimate, which with contingencies totals $376,000.
White said there has been a tentative allocation for the project in the city’s budget of $200,000 in Series A bond funds.
To find the remainder of the needed funding, White said the city has been speaking to the United States Department of Agriculture. The city has gotten word from the state USDA Rural Development director that it has support for the project, and the agency is looking forward to the city’s full grant application.
White said the city is eligible for $132,000 in grant funds, which leaves a $45,000 balance. The engineer’s estimate includes $30,000 for contingencies, so the overall cost could drop.
The project cost included close to $26,000 for artificial turf and installation for the animals’ outdoor exercise areas. White said the turf can be washed off and is more durable than grass.
It was also noted during the discussion that the eight existing indoor kennels would be retained in addition to the 18 new kennels in the modulars.
Asked by a community member about backup generation for the new facility during the fire season, White said the city expects to look for funding for that in the next USDA funding cycle.
Councilwoman Joyce Overton questioned the cost of the artificial turf and raised issues with potentially having to move the facility because of plans to sell some of the nearby city-owned property for a shopping center development.
City Manager Alan Flora said they shouldn’t assume the new shelter facility will need to be moved. He said he had spoken with the representative of the group that has expressed interest in buying and developing the former airport site for the shopping center and that there wasn’t concern about leaving the facility there, even if the shopping center is built.
“It remains to be determined how significant the demand is going to be for all of that property,” Flora said.
Flora said there is existing infrastructure at the current site. If the facility were moved to Ogulin Canyon, where there isn’t infrastructure, Flora said the project cost would at least double.
Overton asked why they couldn’t do grass or some other less expensive material. White said they had looked at using real grass, but it didn’t look sustainable.
He said that, if the council was inclined, parts of the project could be scaled back. However, that raised a question: “Do we keep putting duct tape and bailing wire onto a problem or do we make some sort of a meaningful step forward?”
White said there also was discussion with the ad hoc committee about the suitability of locations. He said that in Napa County, the animal shelter has a shopping center built up around it. The current shelter site also has the ability to expand.
“I am very excited to see this progress being made,” said Councilman Phil Harris, who noted it had been one of his big concerns before running for the council.
The council previously had talked about relocating the facility, but kept putting it off, he said. “Taking action to benefit the animals that we have in our care I think is imperative at this point.”
Harris said that after looking at the numbers repeatedly, he found the project to be “extraordinarily affordable.” Recognizing that artificial turf is not cheap, Harris said they need to stick with that material due to its longevity.
“I’m very excited to see this come to fruition because I think it’s way, way overdue,” Harris said.
Councilmen Dirk Slooten and Russell Perdock also agreed that the project was overdue and it needed to move forward.
While Perdock said he agreed with Overton’s concerns about costs, “We just can’t put this off any longer.”
Mayor Russ Cremer made it unanimous, saying he was very excited to see it go forward and that he thinks the artificial turf will be just fine. He called the current shelter a “pig sty.”
After Cremer told staff that there was unanimous council consensus to move forward, the audience gave the council a round of applause.
Flora told the council that, in addition to the grant funding the city plans to seek from the USDA, the city also is eligible for a USDA loan. However, he said staff didn’t think that option was worth the additional red tape and so they wanted to look at eliminating contingencies.
“Our recommendation is to move forward with just the grant and identify other available funding for any overruns,” Flora said.
White said staff intends to go out for bids and so costs could come in higher or lower than the engineer’s estimate.
At the end of the discussion, Rita Laufer, a member of the Animal Coalition, came forward to speak to the council.
“We’d like to donate $10,000 towards this project,” said Laufer.
Turning to White, she said, “We think you’re wonderful.”
White rose from his seat and came forward to give Laufer a hug.
Turning back to the council, Laufer told them, “That grass is no big thing. Let me tell you something, those animals have been waiting a long time to have a nice place. So $25,000 is nothing.”
Perdock joked that Cremer he had lost control of the meeting.
“For $10,000, we’ll live with that,” Cremer said.
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080819 Clearlake City Council agenda packet by LakeCoNews on Scribd