Critter care

April 7, 2006

DARRELL L. BREESE

Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - The Mat-Su Borough Assembly did everything but check under the seat cushions Tuesday to scrape together enough money to pay for minimal upgrades to the Mat-Su Borough Animal Control and Regulation Shelter's ventilation system. But the $288,240 in interest earnings pieced together from multiple accounts only addresses health concerns raised by the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

While the shelter is a welcome site for homeless animals, the conditions are anything but inviting. As the Valley has grown in population, its animal shelter has become worn and unhealthy for both animals and employees. The money approved Tuesday will pay for improvements to heating, ventilation and air conditioning, as well as the electrical and mechanical systems of the facility.

&#8220It's a drop of water on a hot stone,” shelter volunteer Ruth Hersiger said. &#8220But it falls short of addressing all the needs and repairs the shelter needs.”

Borough director of public works Keith Rountree agrees.

&#8220It is necessary we make these upgrades,” Rountree said. &#8220We are only addressing the life, health and safety issues, and not some of the other needed projects. We are simply making the building safe for both humans and animals.”

Additional items to be repaired include the septic system and the walls of the crematory, which were discovered on Monday to be failing.

&#8220Employees and animals are both getting sick because of the air quality,” Rountree said. &#8220It's very poor, very poor from an air-quality standpoint; that's the biggest issue is that is far deficient.”

According to OSHA standards, a building should have seven to 13 air changes per minute, but at the shelter, there are only about a half to one air changes per minute. The result is stagnant air and transmission of disease. There have been two incidents when the entire animal population had to be put down because of the spread of contagious disease.

The National Animal Control Association reviewed the shelter four years ago, according to the borough's emergency services director Dennis Brodigan.

&#8220They noted then that the ventilation system wasn't designed for an animal shelter,” he said. &#8220Getting the funds for the upgrade places a Band-Aid on a much larger problem.”

A self-proclaimed conservative, assembly member Bill Allen even felt it necessary to vote for the funding.

&#8220Typically it doesn't make sense to me to invest into an old building,” Allen said. &#8220But I don't know that we had any other choice then to play the cards we were dealt as a result of deferred maintenance and voters rejecting the bond to build new shelter in October.”

&#8220It's unfortunate,” Brodigan agreed. &#8220We don't want to be in this position, but the reality is, because of the lack of funding, we're in a position where we're putting more and more money just to keep an old facility running.”

Rountree also gave the assembly a list of upgrades and repairs needed at the facility, and what course of action would be necessary to address the issues.

At the top of the list are several items that only could be addressed by building a new facility.

Besides the 8,000-square-foot building being one third the size required to serve the borough by Humane Society standards, there is a lack of storage, no meeting or break room for staff, inadequate kennel areas for dogs and cats, no quarantine area for sick animals, no protective-custody area for potentially dangerous animals, and no clinic area for the staff veterinarian to examine animals.

The list included more than $300,000 to repair problems at the facility, including deteriorated flooring ($35,000), falling sheet rock and paint ($20,000), damaged kennel fencing ($40,000), exterior siding falling off the building ($30,000), a new barn ($60,000), site drainage issues ($15,000), damaged rain gutters ($20,000), needed sound absorption in kennel ($45,000), and a needed fire sprinkler system (40,000).

There also is a lack of a security system to protect employees and to secure drugs in the veterinarian's area.

Mat-Su voters had a chance to fund construction of a new building in October with a $4.6 million bond proposal, but the proposition failed by a margin of nearly two to one.

&#8220We've got to own this little hurricane we call the animal shelter and stop putting fingers in the dike,” Assemblyman Jim Colver said.

&#8220The water is flooding over the top and we need to get a new shelter built.”

Rountree indicated that he was hopeful the assembly would again ask voters to fund the construction of a new building, and this time the voters would see the need.

Contact Darrell L. Breese at 352-2267 or at darrell.breese@ frontiersman.com.