San Angelo's City Council approved $118,000 for engineering design services for Animal Shelter renovations. Freese and Nichols will create the plans. The firm employs former Assistant City Manager Elizabeth Grindstaff.
Council person Lucy Gonzales pulled the item from the consent agenda and asked about the time frame for renovations. The city's construction manager said the design work would take 45-60 days and then the project could be put out to bid. He deferred to Animal Shelter Chief Morgan Chegwidden on a final completion date. She said renovations would be complete in January 2024.
The construction schedule no longer fits with the financing City Council approved just months ago. The $2 million in borrowings will need to be repaid in the early phase of shelter renovations. The main reason for the short term borrowing was to finance Animal Shelter renovations. No member of City Council asked about this shift in timing and staff did not speak to it.
The public learned this because Council person Lucy Gonzales asked for more information. She has consistently cited the problem of loose animals in her district and shared complaints from residents about lack of response from Animal Services.
City Council avoided the Animal Shelter in last year's Strategic Planning efforts. The situation blew up as final budgets were approved due to horrific hoarding conditions in conjunction with a roach infestation.
Councilman Tommy Hiebert admitted there has been no long term thinking
for Animal Services facilities. Renovations are only to restore the
facility to a usable condition.
Council will soon start its strategic planning sessions. Public Safety was a priority last year. It remains to be seen if City Council will address Animal Services in any substantive way.
Hopefully, they will ask for information on the special review of unaltered shelter pets undertaken by the City Attorney's office. Council approved the hiring of a part time staff person to conduct that study and assist in the citation process. That data has not yet made its way back to City Council.
Update: Council's first strategic planning session is May 26th at 8:30 am.
Update 9-27-23: The City's Capital Improvement Plan has a 4-30-24 completion date for Animal Shelter renovations. The project is yet to be bid on the city's purchasing website.
Update 12-15-23: City Council members received updates from staff on citations issued to shelter pet owners for failure to spay/neuter but that information was not shared with the public, nor was it provided in response to public information requests.
Update 2-8-24: And what number of "originally" is this?
Although originally planned to proceed in November 2023, complex engineering needs prompted a new timeline to break ground this summer.This information was included in the 1-16-24 City Council background packet.
....the bid phase is delayed to May 2024 with estimated construction completion in November 2024.
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