|
Only have a minute? Listen instead
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
HARLINGEN — After nearly a month of repairs, city officials are planning to re-open Harlingen’s animal shelter on Monday.
Officials had been planning to re-open the shelter for the last two weeks but extensive repairs led them to hold off nearly a month after taking over operations following their decision to terminate the city’s 35-year contract with the Rio Grande Valley Humane Society.
“We’re trying to get everything completed so we can open up first thing Monday,” City Manager Gabriel Gonzalez said Thursday. “We had unexpected issues come up.”
Since 1988, the Humane Society, under its former name, the Harlingen Humane Society, had operated the shelter.
Then on Jan. 19, city officials took over operations a month after terminating the Humane Society’s $400,000 annual contract, claiming the “no-kill” agency breached its agreement when it refused to take in residents’ pets along with some animal control officers’ intake requests.
Last month, commissioners pulled $365,937 from the city’s general fund budget to foot the payroll for an 11-member staff which will run the shelter, with Shannon Harvill, the city’s environmental health director, overseeing the operation.
“When the Humane Society left, they took everything, so we’re starting fresh,” Gonzalez said. “It’s a new department we have to oversee but we’re confident we can handle all the issues.”
As part of the transition, officials bought desks to refurnish the shelter’s offices while buying supplies including vaccines, he said.
“We have to restock completely,” Gonzalez said, adding he didn’t have information regarding costs readily available.
For nearly a month, city crews have faced extensive repairs as they fixed kennels and other equipment.
As they reviewed the shelter’s conditions, crews ran into unexpected repair jobs, Gonzalez said.
“We had to repaint the entire facility, and our supplier ran out. So that took some time (to complete),” he said. “Part of the fence was taken down so we had to buy some (fencing) to put it back up, and part of the awning was taken out.”
Assistant City Manager Josh Ramirez has described the shelter’s conditions as “deplorable.”
“We had to clean everything — power wash everything,” Gonzalez said. “It was really dirty — cobwebs everywhere, insect droppings everywhere.”
Amid the shelter’s shutdown, the city’s animal control officers have been taking strays and “vicious” dogs to Brownsville’s Animal Regulation and Care Center, Ramirez said.
Earlier this month, city commissioners set the shelter’s new animal adoption fees while hiring a veterinarian to oversee medical services.
While officials will be charging residents $58 to adopt dogs, commissioners set fees for cats at $46, planning to release animals after tests, vaccines and microchipping.
For residents taking animals to the shelter, officials will be charging $20 for dogs and cats while boosting fees to $40 for litters.
During a meeting, commissioners set the shelter’s adoption fees below the Humane Society’s rates, which include $102 to adopt dogs and $76 for cats, along with those charged by the Brownsville animal shelter and the Palm Valley Animal Society.
Meanwhile, commissioners entered into a six-month contract paying $1,248 monthly with Robert Kellogg, a retired Harlingen veterinarian who co-founded the Humane Society during his 40-year career.
