Nursing home residents speak against shelter site

Three locations still under consideration

SPRINGDALE — Staff of Walnut Grove Nursing Home rolled five residents in wheelchairs into the City Council’s chambers Tuesday night. The residents voiced their opposition to construction of the city’s new animal shelter next door to the nursing home on Don Tyson Parkway.

The site just east of Old Missouri Road came under consideration last week, with city officials awaiting initial engineering reports to determine the appropriateness of the site for the shelter. Two other locations remain under consideration: a site on Huntsville Avenue, next to Central Junior High; and a lot on McCullough Drive and Ford Avenue in the city’s industrial park.

Mayor Doug Sprouse said he considers any of the three proposed sites as good locations for the animal shelter.

Council member Mike Overton proposed land on Park Street recently purchased by the city, but that site has been slotted for Luther George Park and development through a Walton Family Foundation Design Excellence Grant, Sprouse said.

Council members last month abandoned a proposed site in J.B. Hunt Park.

Springdale voters approved in February $4.7 million to build a new animal shelter as part of a $200 million bond package.

Council members Tuesday tabled discussion of the shelter and its proposed sites until its committee meeting Aug. 6, but invited residents present to speak before the

council and invited them to future meetings.

“I’m against the dog pound,” said Ruby Soloman. “We go out with the nurses. What if some dog gets loose — and you know they get out. We will not have a chance of getting back to safety. There are more places that are much, much better for a dog pound.”

Donna Morris, a nurse in the facility’s memory unit said her patients get agitated by noise, and staff are worried constant barking from dogs housed in the shelter would upset residents. Also, dangerous or sick pets that owners no longer want might be “dumped” outside the shelter overnight, endangering residents before shelter staff arrives in the mornings to contain them.

Penny Patton, the business office manager for Walnut Grove, said the nursing home has a residents’ council made up of patients speaking as representatives for their fellow residents.

“We told them what was going on, and they wanted to come to the council meeting,” Patton said. “We want our residents to have peace of mind and security.”

“And these are our healthiest residents,” pointed out Shane Cluck, administrator of Walnut Grove.

Cluck also noted that if a company wanted to build a nursing home next to an animal shelter, Arkansas law would prevent it. The Arkansas Office Long Term Care lists standards for locating a nursing facility, and it prohibits locations “near insect breeding areas, noise or other nuisance producing locations, or hazardous locations, industrial developments, airports, railways or near penal or other objectionable institutions or near a cemetery. The site shall afford the safety of patients and not be subject to air pollution.”