Animals still looking for home

SPRINGDALE — Stray and missing animals are still looking for their future home. City Council members on Monday forwarded for a vote a proposed location for a new animal shelter on Huntsville Avenue.

The full City Council will vote on the proposed location July 24.

Monday night, council members meeting in committees considered a report from Brad Place with SCM Architects in Little Rock, saying the Huntsville

Avenue site could include additional site-work costing $195,000 to $270,000 for the project.

The council members also on Monday considered a second site for the shelter on McCollough Drive and Ford Avenue in the city’s industrial area. Nabholz Construction estimated an additional $475,000 to $550,000 for site work on Ford Avenue.

Voters approved using $4.7 million in February to build an animal shelter as part of the 2018 bond program. At the time, the site for the shelter was in J.B. Hunt Park. The city also has $500,000 above the $4 million estimate for problems that might occur in construction, said Mayor Doug Sprouse.

The council voted to abandon the Hunt Park site June 18 after an anonymous seller offered to sell the city 12 acres on Huntsville Avenue, just west of Central Junior High School, for $750,000.

Councilman Mike Overton questioned whether a soil composition test had been done on the Huntsville site and if the soil and drainage were suitable to build the animal shelter. Sprouse reported the architects and construction managers walked the site and considered a development plan submitted to the city’s Planning Department for self-storage rental units.

“We’ve got one really good shot to build a great animal shelter,” said Councilwoman Kathy Jaycox. “So what, if we come in a couple thousand over budget?”

But she admitted, she, too, had reservations about picking a site and having to spend a great deal of money after the fact, “because we didn’t do our homework.”

Two council members, Mike Lawson and Colby Fulfer, suggested the city continue to look for more sites to purchase that might work well for the animal shelter

“But how much more money do you want to spend before we pick a site?” Sprouse asked, noting appraisals, construction estimates, soil tests and more would be needed on any property the city bought.

The council voted 4-3 against a proposal to buy the Huntsville Avenue land with the contingency the soil report came back favorable for construction, but the mayor and members couldn’t determine the characteristics of “favorable.”

The council voted 4-3 against a motion to move forward with the site on Ford Avenue.

“I’ve said from the beginning that Ford Avenue was a great location, but we will regret it in the future if it’s not on Huntsville in a central and visible location,” Sprouse said.

Brian Moore, owner of the Huntsville property, told the council he didn’t care whether the city bought his land. “But don’t put the animal shelter on Ford Avenue. That’s a terrible location for an animal shelter. Find another site. Give the animals a chance to be adopted. Twenty-eight thousand cars a day drive past [the Huntsville Avenue] site. You could have a video board out front and put pictures of kittens on it. They probably would get adopted.”

Moore even told the council any offer to purchase the property could be withdrawn at any time at the buyer’s discretion after receiving the results of the soil test.

Wyman Morgan, the city’s director of finance and administration, estimated a soil test would cost between $10,000 and $20,000.

The seven council members present accepted a proposal to purchase the land on Huntsville Avenue. This vote passed 7-0, but members noted the resolution was going to the full council without a recommendation for approval.