Animal Shelter Site - CtPost

The CtPost had an article today (actually it will appear in ThuOct1 deadwood version) that relates to site evaluation by the Conservation Commission for an Animal Control Facility. There isn't much to comment on within the article, but I present it hear for posterity as the CtPost occassionaly deletes links.

I encourage readers to go to the ConnPost article as they are the content creator of the article and have methods for readers to comment on their aritlces within their website. I cut/paste with my comments under right of fair-use for public education as Chairman of the Conservation Commission.

http://www.connpost.com/news/ci_13453974
Site chosen for Shelton animal shelter
By Kate RamunniSTAFF WRITER
Updated: 09/30/2009 05:05:52 PM EDT

SHELTON -- After years of wrangling, city officials appear to have settled on a spot for the city's new animal shelter - and it's only yards away from the existing one.

A building on Riverdale Avenue, known as the Pink Elephant, would be demolished to make way for the new shelter under the current proposal the Animal Shelter Building Committee is considering.

"We haven't decided upon it as much as the mayor has asked us to look at it," committee chairman, Tony Minopoli, said. "We are in the process of trying to verify if it will work."

For the past several years the committee has been designing the new shelter and looking for somewhere to put it. Originally they investigated the site next to the Pink Elephant building and had extensive environmental tests done there to make sure it is usable.

But then Mayor Mark A. Lauretti, who originally established the committee because he said the current shelter is woefully outdated, asked the committee to look into a city-owned site on Nells Rock Road where a proposed dog park is being considered.

But that suggestion drew criticism from both neighbors and members of the Conservation Commission, which maintains the open space there along the Shelton Greenway.

"No matter where around the city you suggest a site, there are people that will say I'm against it," said Board of Aldermen president John Anglace. The committee must get the board's approval on a site before going forward with construction of a new shelter. "It's the most difficult things to do -- to find a reasonable location for a new animal shelter," Anglace said. "[The Pink Elephant site] seems to make the most sense."

The committee is investigating constructing a 5,000 square-foot metal building on whatever site is chosen that will include 30 dog runs and an area for cat adoptions, Minopoli said. It also will have an adoption area where those interested in adopting can get to know their prospective pet.

"The basic tenants of the plan remain unchanged," he said. A metal building will be more economical, he said, and improvements in the building technology mean that it will be much more visually pleasing than such buildings have been in the past.

"The things you can do to the outside of these buildings are tremendous," he said. "We have designed it to make look like a New England-style barn with cupolas - it's going to be a very attractive building and the maintenance cost should be low."

More environmental testing will likely have to be done, Minopoli said, and the items in the building, which has been used for storage, will have to be relocated. "We likely would do more testing to be absolutely sure that there are no environmental problems," he said, and would have to investigate other utility issues before moving forward with the site.

"Nothing is firm yet but these are our thoughts and the direction we would like to see this project go," Anglace said. "I think it is a good direction to get this project moving."