Animal shelter two years away, official says

CONWAY — Faulkner County is probably two years away from establishing an animal shelter even though it recently bought property for one, the county’s civil attorney said.

Earlier this month, the county paid $ 499,025 to buy the buildings and land at 324 S. German Lane in Conway for a shelter. The site includes two steel-sided buildings covering 11,167 square feet on 1.01 acres, formerly used for the Faulkner County Day School, according to records obtained under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.

The county paid for the property, closed on Jan. 18, with revenue from a voluntary 1.5-mill animals shelter tax that began in 2006.

County Attorney David Hogue said it probably would be two years before the county could get the facilities remodeled and have the fund built up enough to help cover operating expenses.

Not everyone is happy about a two-year time frame.

“Two years is too long,” said Donna Clawson, chairman of the Faulkner County Animal Shelter Advisory

Board. “We started doing this [ the voluntary tax] a long time ago.”

Hogue said the tax fund has a total balance of $878,449.98, which includes 2017 revenue of $120,901.13. He said he did not know how much the county wants to have set aside for operating expenses.

Clawson said the county plans to remodel the buildings. “It will take a while,” she said, but one year is more reasonable than two years.

The Quorum Court needs “to figure out how we will sustain the shelter. Voluntary taxes are part of it, but we’re going to have to have probably $400,000 to sustain the shelter, to do what needs to be done. The question is … how are we going to pay for the staff?”

“I have no idea if they [justices of the peace] would consider anything like a sales tax,” Clawson said. “I don’t know what they’re going to do, but they’re going to have to do something because the people of Faulkner County have said they want a shelter. There’s just so much money, and the Quorum Court has a responsibility to spend it in the best interests of Faulkner County.”

Still, Clawson said, “We feel like we’re on the right track. We’ve just got to start remodeling the building and getting it ready for animals. If the county and the city [of Conway] merge [their animal control operations], that’s a whole different deal since they already have staff.”

Just recently, Clawson said, a rural Faulkner County man died, leaving behind 28 cats and dogs. The man’s brother has been caring for them but can’t afford to feed that many pets. There is no shelter for the pets, which include puppies and a pregnant dog. The Conway shelter does not take animals from outside the city.

Clawson said she believes the city would save money if the shelters merged. The city already has a shelter for stray, neglected or abandoned city animals, mainly cats and dogs.

A merger would allow the city and county governments to share trucks as well as staffing, though at least two more staff members would be needed for the county facility, Clawson said.

One difference in the two operations is that the county is more likely to get some animals that the city rarely, if ever, gets — goats and cows, for instance. The county would need to provide some green space for the farm animals, and Clawson indicated some is available.

“Whether or not we merge, it just makes sense to do it,” she said.

Until the county shelter opens, Hogue said, the buildings could be used for another purpose but only if the animal shelter fund is reimbursed.

For example, Hogue said, “there’s some talk about the sheriff’s department using” the facility before it becomes a shelter since it’s so close to one of the county jails.

“If we do that, the sheriff’s department would have to pay rent back for the use of that building,” Hogue said. “That’s just a matter of transparency in using the animal control money [to avoid] using it for something it’s not intended for.” This way, he said, the county would be “making sure it’s an investment for the animal control fund.”

Clawson had no objection to that plan. She said it would raise some extra money for the animal fund while remodeling in another part of the facility was underway.

Randy Higgins, who heads the Quorum Court committee dealing with the shelter issue, referred questions to Hogue or County Judge Jim Baker.