Animal shelter project eyes start of construction after Dothan Commission vote
DOTHAN, Ala. (WDHN) — A decades-long project to bring a new animal shelter to Dothan is moving ahead after the city entered a project agreement with the Wiregrass Pet Rescue and Adoption Center, which will allow the shelter to start construction.
In a 3-1 vote, the commission voted to enter a contract with the nonprofit and vowed to commit over $6 million to the construction process and help the shelter in its first year of operation.
“It is a relief,” Executive Director of the Wiregrass Pet Rescue and Adoption Center, Rachel Smith said. “We are so excited.”
Smith says the two items passed by the city commission on Tuesday morning were the last two things standing between them and construction on the property off Highway 52.
“This was the last key,” Smith said. “This was the last piece of the puzzle. We needed that ‘yes’ vote. Now we are almost at 100% architecture and once we hit that we can start construction and we’ll be ready to go.”
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This vote didn’t come without hesitation after the commission tabled the original vote in March due to questions about the agreement and hesitancy to commit millions to the project.
However, the commission reached a new agreement and now the vision of a new shelter in the Circle City is becoming a reality.
“We had a change in the relationship and how we were going to move the building forward, so the commission wanted to make sure they were comfortable with all the details we are moving forward on,” Mayor of Dothan, Mark Saliba said.
The only commissioner who voted ‘no’ was District 1 Commissioner Kevin Dorsey. He says there are bigger needs in the community than this new shelter and that upgrades and modifications could have been made to the old animal shelter off Omussee Road in Dothan.
“Man there are people that don’t have a roof over their head and are struggling,” Dorsey said. “We have more social problems that we could have put the funding towards, but today I was just one vote. My heart just didn’t lead me that way to vote ‘yes'”
The center will be a no-kill shelter, which will stick to the standards of the current Dothan animal shelter, which states that 90% of the animals must leave the shelter through adoption, be fostered into a home, or be transported to another facility.
It will be run by the nonprofit instead of the city and will alleviate the workload for animal control officers.
“Their only goal will be to collect and pick up strays and then obviously if there is any cruelty or hoarding situations they will be in charge of that,” Smith said.
The newsletter will provide construction updates, upcoming events, and other things about the shelter.
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