The Mobile City Council voted to commit $75,000 toward expanding the city’s animal shelter, giving a long-running fundraising effort by a local nonprofit the final piece it needed to move forward. Representatives with Friends of the Mobile Animal Shelter asked the council for the funding during a regular Tuesday meeting, and members approved it as part of a larger public-private partnership.
The $75,000 completes the city’s share of a $225,000 project. Friends of the Mobile Animal Shelter has spent years raising money toward the effort, collecting roughly $150,000 since 2008 to help design and build additional kennel space at the facility, which is owned and operated by the city.
With the funding now approved, the project can move ahead on several fronts. Plans call for an 11-run kennel addition, along with the demolition of an aging trailer that has been used to house cats and construction of a permanent building to replace it for adoptable cats awaiting new homes.
Colby Cooper, chief of staff to Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson, said the city’s engineering department will provide oversight to make sure the work meets code and stays on track, but the nonprofit will handle soliciting and awarding construction bids itself. Council President Gina Gregory also weighed in during the meeting, noting that the shelter expansion is a separate matter from a proposed update to the city’s animal ordinance that remains under consideration.
Animal shelter capacity has been a recurring topic for Mobile officials and animal welfare advocates in recent years, as the facility has worked to keep pace with the volume of stray and surrendered animals coming through its doors. Supporters of the expansion have argued that additional, better-designed kennel and cat housing space can improve outcomes for animals waiting to be adopted, while easing crowding at the shelter.
The animal shelter item was one of several matters the council took up during Tuesday’s meeting, which also touched on other city business ranging from infrastructure to community facilities. Friends of the Mobile Animal Shelter has said it plans to continue working with the city as construction moves forward on the kennel and cat housing additions in the months ahead.