All Designs for New DeKalb Animal Shelter Exceed Projected Budget
A DeKalb County advisory board will make its recommendation Tuesday for a design for the county’s new animal shelter. Members of the Animal Services Advisory board feel they have an uphill battle.Broadcast Version
The county’s projected cost for the shelter is $7 million. It gave the Animal Services Advisory Board, whose members are appointed by county commissioners or the DeKalb CEO, four different designs to evaluate. The problem is that the least expensive design is project to cost $8.1 million to build.
Board members agree unanimously that design is not viable. It has less capacity for animals than the existing facility, which solves a chronic overcrowding problem by euthanizing animals. In March, shelter workers euthanized almost 20% of the animals at the facility.
Sonali Sandaine, who chairs the advisory board, told WABE, “We need to make this right if we want a facility that is true to its new mission, which is to save lives, and a facility that is durable enough to be here for the next generation.”
The board will recommend to county commissioners another of the four options. At $11 million, Sandaine says it is the least expensive choice that uses best practices in shelter care: sufficient capacity and individual kennels for all dogs. The most expensive option would cost approximately $14 million to build.
County Commissioner Jeff Rader wants to know why the least expensive option the county gave the board is more than a million dollars over its own cost estimate. “This may be a result of higher than anticipated unit cost,” said Rader. “And so then the question becomes, ‘Why is that?’ and is there any alternative that would bring it down?”
The project is about six weeks behind schedule right now; the timetable projects a new shelter will be open by early April 2015.
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