Manatee County commissioners disagree on animal shelter scope

Although the plan for a proposed animal shelter on a new site is included in Manatee County’s Capital Improvement Plan with an estimated completion date of Aug. 2023, Commissioner Vanessa Baugh wants the Board of County Commissioners to consider renovating or rebuilding at the current site to save money.

For the current plan to be scrubbed, four commissioners would need to vote to take the project off the Capital Improvement Plan. Baugh said she believes the current 4-acre site is big enough to continue to host a county shelter.

Commissioners Carol Whitmore, however, said the current location is next to a cemetery and approximately half of the 4 acres is not usable. Whitmore said the commissioners should stick to the plan already approved. She noted the plan has been approved in the budget for three consecutive years.

Manatee County Animal Services Chief Sarah Brown said the shelter’s current capacity is about 80 dogs. The shelter has managed to stay below 100 dogs since April but has held as many as 190 animals in the past because of the county’s no-kill policy.

Baugh said the overcrowding issue should be part of a larger conversation about how the county should approach its role as a shelter. She thinks the county should do everything it can to send more of its animals to private shelters.

“This is not supposed to be a permanent home that we have," Baugh said. "We are supposed to be trying to get animals adopted. They don't have much of a life (at the county shelter). And some of them have been there for quite a while. The ultimate answer for our shelter should not be to have animals in there that stay for the rest of their lives. Every animal deserves a happy home.”

Other commissioners weren’t sure if that is a feasible strategy. Whitmore said most shelters don’t take specific breeds, such as pit bulls, or large dogs. Baugh acknowledged this but said the county can find a shelter that will if it tries hard enough.

Commissioner George Kruse raised other concerns about building on the site of the existing animal shelter. He said the facility's location in Palmetto is far from the center of the county. Kruse said this makes the shelter less accessible for many prospective adopters. He also wondered what would happen after the old shelter is demolished but before the new one is built, if it were constructed on the same site.

He said demolition of the current structure could get expensive.

“Demo costs aren't always cheap, especially with older buildings,” Kruse said. “The advantage of building brand new is that it is always more efficient. You don't have the demo costs. And you can build one while you're still utilizing the other.”

Kruse said he might think differently if someone said the county could rebuild a facility on the existing site for substantially less money than building a new one on property owned by the county, though he doubted that would be the case. Baugh, however, toured the current shelter with a builder who suggested it could could rebuilt for approximately $1 million.

The proposed shelter listed on the Capital Improvement Plan would be located on property owned by Manatee County south of State Road 64, across the street from Carlos E. Haile Middle School and School House Drive. The budgeted cost is $10 million, $8 million of which would come from infrastructure sales tax revenues.

The other $2 million would come from funds raised by Animal Network Inc., a local nonprofit dedicated to offering spay/neuter clinics, microchipping, educational programming and support to other animal rescue organizations. Animal Network President Pam Freni said the organization has raised about $350,000 since April 2019.

To raise the rest of the money by the organization’s goal, the end of 2022, Freni said she is counting on the COVID-19 pandemic to be contained over the next several months so Animal Network can start holding fundraising events in person and meet with potential big-money donors face to face.

“We don't have a situation where we can actually go and speak with (possible donors) safely, which makes it very difficult to get someone excited,” Freni said. “And it's difficult to get people excited about it because of the commissioners’ reticence to fully support it and tell everyone, ‘We're going to go do this.'"

Freni said it is hard to get supporters interested again when everyone is concentrating on COVID-19.

"When people start being able to quit worrying about that, we will be able to give them something else to look forward to,” Freni said.