Representatives from the towns of Winston and Kidder, along with Daviess County Commissioner Danny Heldenbrand, attended a meeting on Aug. 10, at the city hall in Cameron to discuss the feasibility of a regional animal shelter.
This website brought to you in part by the following sponsor:
Find out how to advertise here - Email us! [email protected]
Clyde Han, the city inspector for Cameron, who is spearheading the project, said this was the third meeting held to gather information on how the building would be operated and who would run it.
He said one of the main questions was how many animals each of the communities might be sending over the course of a year to a regional shelter. He said the best guess was around 1,220 animals per year — 813 dogs and 407 cats.
Determining the number of animals will help determine the size of a facility.
Mr. Han said the animal shelter for the city of Cameron was used as a basis to figure the cost of staffing, insurance, building maintenance, utilities, etc, for a larger, regional facility. He said the operating cost for such a shelter was estimated at around $154,000.
The shelter could probably generate around $130,000 by charging fees. Those fees would include adopting animals out at a discounted rate (50%); reclaiming animals (15%); and boarding animals that people can no longer keep (10-15%).
"That leaves a deficit of about $20,000 to $30,000," said Mr. Han. "If the shelter charged cities and counties $25 per animal to use the shelter, which is what individuals are generally asked to pay, those funds could offset the rest of the operating expense."
Mr. Han said a core group from a four-county area, Daviess, DeKalb, Clinton and Caldwell, has been showing up at the meetings to talk about the shelter. The group previously acknowledged that the shelter will not fix enforcement problems for their communities, but ought to help with concerns on what do with animals after they’ve been picked up by animal control.
During those meetings, the group has heard reports about other shelters in the state regarding what works and what doesn’t at those facilities. They discussed appointing a board of directors and creating a business plan. Both are necessary to get state and federal grants. They also heard that an individual with a 501C3 is willing to let his tax exempt status be used toward the shelter; however, he didn’t want to run it. The group also talked about the design of the building.
"How it will be funded and how it will be operated, those are the questions we’re continuing to work on," Mr. Han said.
Also attending some of the meetings have been representatives from the towns of Gallatin, Pattonsburg, Union Star, Hamilton, Cowgill, Polo and Cameron, Safe Haven, the Department of Agriculture, and DeKalb County Commissioner Gary McFee.
"We’re moving forward a little quicker than I thought we would, which is great," Mr. Han said. "We need to get our proposal to legal counsel to make sure we are doing everything the right way and don’t get in trouble down the road."
Mr. Han said he would visit with the county commissioners of Daviess and DeKalb and the Cameron City Council on Aug. 17, to bring them up to speed.
He said the next step would be to decide a location for the proposed shelter.
"We need to figure out where to put this thing," he said. "Frankly, we don’t have the money to purchase land."
He said they were hoping for land donated or leased from a county, city or private individual.
"Everybody wants a shelter, but nobody wants it next door," he said. "We need it to be in a rural area away from homes and neighbors, but we also need to be able to hook up to utilities."
Mr. Han said there was still a lot of work to do, but they are moving forward.
"We have people calling daily to volunteer at the shelter," he said. "They want to work or donate funds. Animals are the passion of a lot of people."