Voters to decide on new animal shelter

Friday, May 20, 2005 | 9:25 a.m.

Boulder City voters will decide June 7 whether to replace an aging animal shelter that dates to the 1950s with a modern facility expected to cost taxpayers $1 million once land is sold.

The ballot initiative asks voters if the existing shelter at 1390 San Felipe Drive should be sold to offset the cost of building a new shelter at Nevada Highway and Yucca Street.

The ballot measure calls on the city to spend no more than $1.5 million for the new shelter out of the capital improvement fund. The building alone is expected to cost $1.2 million. The remaining $300,000 will go for grading and sewer hookups and other expenses, said Councilwoman Andrea Anderson.

Opponents of the proposed shelter have called it a Taj Mahal and said the city shouldn't be spending that much money.

The $1.5 million price tag for the shelter is expected to be offset by the sale of the existing shelter on four acres for an estimated cost of $500,000 Anderson said. That means only $1 million will be spent from the city's existing resources.

The Boulder City Animal Shelter lacks the room needed for housing cats and dogs and the ability to quarantine them when they get sick, Anderson said. There is no heating and cooling as well.

One of the opponents, Philip De Langis, said he's for a new animal shelter but against what he called "wild spending." He urged the city to install a metal building on the existing shelter site and insulate it with bricks.

"We don't need a multimillion facility when $500,000 could do it," De Langis said.

The new shelter would be constructed in an industrial area next to a proposed dog park, Anderson said.