Animal Shelter opening set for February
Pocatello’s brand new animal shelter was scheduled to open this weekend, but the shelter is still waiting for crews to install some new amenities before they can finally start moving the animals into their new home.
Pocatello Animal Shelter executive director Mary Remer said the shelter takes care of roughly 70 animals each day, and the current facility doesn’t have the means to properly hold and care for all of them.
“This building will be so much easier to clean and maintain than what we are doing right now,” Remer said. “So that will give us more time to work with the animals themselves and the public more.”
The new facility will also give the animals more space, complete with larger kennels where dogs can roam both inside and outside, and both dogs and cats will have an area where they can be displayed for curious clients to peek in and take a look before they adopt.
“We are so excited for the amenities we are given for these animals and our staff just can’t wait,” Remer added.
Initially, the shelter asked the city for $2.8 million to build the facility, but later asked for more to count-in the cost of utilities and whatnot.
The city’s chief financial officer Joyce Stroschein said the city reopened the budget and moved $464,000 to the general fund to help cover the additional costs.
But both Stroschein and Remer said the good news is that the shelter will fall far under the newly projected cost.
“Right now the fund is in a positive position,” Stroschein said. “We are estimating it could be between $100,000 and $200,000 in additional costs.”
Stroschein said this will not cost the taxpayers any extra money because this money has already been set aside for this one-time extra expense.
“You have to look at two things: their cash balance is positive and they have the needed authority to make their expenditures, both of which are two critical parts to look at. You want to have cash in your fund and you want to have budget authority, and the shelter has both,” Stroschein added.
Remer said she projects the new shelter will open by February seventh.
