Higgins & Baker Pitch “Purchase Opportunity” for County Animal Shelter
A potential “property purchase opportunity” for a Faulkner County animal shelter was the only agenda item at the special Courts & Public Safety Committee meeting on June 1.
As COVID restrictions were lifted May 30, members of the public were in the Courtroom for the meeting, including several animal welfare volunteers. County Judge Jim Baker, County Administrator Tom Anderson, and a couple JPs who are not Committee members were also in the room: John Allison (R, Dist. 3) and Jerry Boyer (R, Dist. 12).
Chair JP Randy Higgins (R, Dist. 2) said he invited Infrastructure Committee Chair Matt Brown (R, Dist. 8), and John Pickett (D, Dist. 11), Budget Committee Chair, to the meeting, and Sheriff Tim Ryals attended online.
Although Committee members Jake Moss (R, Dist. 13) and Rose Roland (R, Dist. 5) were unable to attend, Higgins reminded the Committee that the three members present created the necessary quorum to conduct business.
$400,000 for 4 Acres
Referring to handouts he distributed when the meeting began, Higgins outlined a proposed animal shelter property/building purchase arrangement that Baker negotiated over the last five weeks:
♦ $400,000 for four acres at 597 Highway 65 North in Springhill, next door to Companions Spay and Neuter facility, with a 10,000 sq. ft. wood-frame, elevated concrete slab warehouse currently occupied by the “Through the Years” flea market.
Higgins explained the location is convenient and that an existing mobile home would be removed by Tommy and Barbara Everett, the sellers, by February 1, 2022.
♦ Once the sale of the property is completed — which must happen within 30 days per the agreement Baker negotiated with the Everetts — the flea market will continue to operate, rent-free to the County but covered under the County’s insurance, through January, 2022. Faulkner County would immediately become responsible for maintaining the property, as well as any property tax liability.
The property is serviced by Greenbrier water and Greenbrier Fire Department, although it is not zoned by the city of Greenbrier; it is “in the County,” said Baker later. Higgins added that he had “unofficially” talked with Greenbrier Mayor Sammy Hartwick and “a couple of city council members … they were excited.”
Because the property would be purchased with animal control funds, all uses of the four acres must be related to animal welfare.
How Much to Build?
Higgins said Baker “had reached out to a contractor” and asked how much a similar building would cost to build and “the price he gave him, not inclusive of the property … about $280,000 to build a building plus another $70,000 for electrical, plumbing, and HV/AC, so that’s a total of about $350,000….”
Higgins added that the Judge had also arranged for Rik Sowell (the County’s favored architectural firm) to create a “preliminary budget estimate” for a build-out and/or remodeling of the warehouse building to create an animal shelter.
The handouts included photos as well as a rendering of the animal shelter that Sowell provided. Sowell’s estimate — including land purchase, fees, contruction costs, furniture, fixtures, and equipment — is $1,369,000, which Higgins characterized as “the upper end of an estimate.” Higgins later said that Sowell had not yet provided a timeline for all the work required.
JPs Asked to Review & Tour the Building
Higgins asked the Committee and JPs to review the information he provided and take a “self guided tour of the proposed facility” before next week’s scheduled Courts & Public Safety Committee meeting on June 8.
He said, if the Committee agreed, he could provide a draft Ordinance to OK the purchase and they could forward it to the Budget Committee at their June 8 meeting. He added that the Ordinance could come before the Quorum Court as soon as June 15.
Funds to Operate?
Responding to concerns expressed by JP Tyler Lachowsky (R, Dist. 6), Higgins acknowledged that the
big question has always been ‘How do we operate this? How do we pay for operation?’ So we’e had the discussions many times… what does that number look like? …
We’ve had numbers that ranged from $250,000 a year to — you know, $700,000 or $800,000. it depends on what you compare it to…. Conway’s operation, I believe, is under $400,000….
A lot of those questions go unanswered because we don’t know. We can give our best estimates but we don’t know…. if we could … fund this at least a year, then we would know — especially in the startup….
So that’s another question all along — How are we going to do the revenue stream? But we’ve got to start somewhere and we’ve go to get to that number.
Lachowsky also asked, “How does this solve the vicious dog issue?”, prompting Higgins to review the history of animal problems Faulkner County had experienced “since as far back as 2005.”
Higgins added that, even though the County has a stronger animal control ordinance now, the County “doesn’t have any teeth to enforce it” because there’s no place to house strays and vicious animals; Faulkner County depends on informal requests to local municipalities who have available space in their shelters. “We have determined through lots of discussions .. that the animal shelter is the missing link.”
How Much to Operate?
Higgins later said
$300,000 – $350,000. We think that’s a good number to operate the facility…” He added that “a tax increase … that’s not a popular option. Or you can move money from within.
And we’ve talked about that … but when you do that within the budget, somebody else in County government loses. So those are the hard discussions we’ve had…. I mean, the animal issue is what we’re trying to solve, but the problem is a money issue.
The voluntary animal tax brings in about $125,000 to $140,000 a year, Higgins added.
Baker Explains
Baker described three recent animal control incidents:
♦ a Mt. Vernon boy was killed by a vicious dog
♦ a individual “south of Conway” with 60 dogs
♦ “three weeks ago, a pack of seven German Shepherds in Treasure Hills” killed sheep and a citation was written, but there was nowhere to take the dogs because local shelters were full.
He said, “This (proposed) property was not on the market to be sold,” but he negotiated the proposed arrangement, adding this “doesn’t need to be a long, drawn-out process because we actually approached about buying” the property.
Later Boyer, remarked on the “disapproval part” of the animal control problem and reinforced his comments by reading out loud a constituent email about a problem with relocating animals the former owner had abandoned.
More Personnel Needed?
When Allison asked if the County has the resources to maintain the property “if we can’t somehow get into operation immediately,” Higgins assured him
… we won’t have problem with the property falling apart because the occupants will still be in it for at least the next seven months. As far as operating the shelter, no, we don’t currently have animal control personnel working for Faulkner County. So that’ll be part of what we’ll be talking about in the next seven months.
Options, Options
Allison pressed again, asking “If we don’t have it in operation, ready to move in and ready to start the rebuild, can the County employees we have now maintain the property without substantial additional appropriations?”
Higgins said, “We have options … I almost hate to go there but we have the option of renting out the facility … the rent would go to the animal shelter fund…. We have the option to sell the property down the road, if we just can’t make it work … and that money will also go back into the animal control fund.”
Appraisal Coming
When Brown asked about an appraisal, Baker assured him, “We’ll do one tomorrow,” after commenting that the 12-year-old appraisal he had already seen “was subsantially more money than what we’re paying for.”
Shock added that he knows the owners and that “three years ago they were trying to sell it and they were asking three-quarters of a million” dollars.
Grants for Operation?
Susan Shaddox from Lake Beaverfork spoke from the audience about “unlimited sources for grants” for the operation of a shelter, “if you have a building,” naming off several (Bissell Foundation, Petsmart charities, Kellogg’s Foundation, etc.).
She added she felt “strongly that, if people see that we have a facility, then our numbers will increase and we’ll get donations and we can very likely get some private, anonymous donations also or more money.”
Seven Months to Plan
Baker emphasized that keeping the flea market in operation until January, 2022 gives the County “seven months” to make plans for a shelter and its operation, causing Lachowsky to comment
I feel like we’re almost going back to the budget session. You know, we have budget meetings in December and then we have to approve a budget three days before the end of the year.
I don’t want to be in that situation this time … You know, it’s December and now we’ve got to approve a plan for how to operate a shelter, because we’re about to start construction and move into it … and now the pressure’s on to approve a plan where we don’t have the plan for operation before we buy a building, before we have pressure to do one.
I know we need it … I just feel like this is such a precious pot of money that these animal companions — compassionate about animals — have given their money to and they expect us to do something with it. And, I agree, we need to do something with it, but I don’t want to waste it on a risk … where we don’t have a plan for operations. That’s just the biggest thing that scares me about it right now.
Friends of Animal Shelter Approve
When Lachowsky asked the animal welfare volunteers in the audience for “their approvals,” Donna Clawson with the Friends of the Faulkner County Animal Shelter enthusiastically endorsed the proposal:
… The location is perfect. It already has a driveway. It already has electric. It already has sewer… If we have an emergency, people know where they can pick up their pet. If your pet gets loose, go to Faulkner County Animal Shelter…. If you have a goat, we can keep your goat there, you know….
We’ll get a board to run it. We’ll find a board of some of the rescue people … or whoever else that you think, and kind of run it like the library….
She added, “We’re going to have a big campaign, because only 6% of Faulkner County checks that box [for the voluntary animal tax], and we get $125,000” a year. “If we could get twice that, look at that. Now that’s revenue,” she continued.
Toward the end of the 70-minute meeting, Jared Fowlkes “of the Beryl community” also asked about the current spay and neuter program, prompting Higgins to review that timeline of events. Fowlkes suggested that the County look at providing a “free spay and neuter program.”
The Courts & Public Safety Committee should be meeting again on Tuesday, June 8.
