Iowa City Eyes Scaled-Back Animal Shelter

Iowa City officials have announced plans for a smaller, less expensive project to construct a new animal shelter.

The new plan reduces the size from about to about 12,000 square feet, and drops the cost from about $4 million to about $3 million.

"We recognized the City Council probably wasn’t going to go with the full size and full dollar amount and pulled these dollars down," Iowa City City Manager Tom Markus told member of the Iowa City Council during a work session on Tuesday.

Misha Goodman, director of animal services in Iowa City, said she is satisfied with the new plans.

"I am satisfied that we will be able to scale it back and it will be able to work for us for the near future," Goodman said.

The former animal shelter location was destroyed by the 2008 flood, and the project is eligible for federal emergency funds. The new shelter is to be built near Napolean Park with a completion date in late 2014.

However, municiple leaders need to get their act together to meet federal deadlines to get the money.

"We are at a stage right now that we have to move forward with the design," Markus said.

Thus far, Coralville, University Heights and the University of Iowa have come to terms of participating in the animal shelter project, according to Markus. The numbers could change with the new cost projections. Johnson County is also interested, but has balked at the amount they are expected to pay. North Liberty is looking for services elsewhere and some other municipalities in Johnson County have not responded.

"If you are not going to agree to these terms you will need to look for alternate services like North Liberty did," Markus said.

Iowa City staff will present design plan on April 3. The project needs an extension from Federal Emergency Management Agency in April, which is expected. The project plan will be due to FEMA in August.