Grant County Animal Outreach gets funds for new shelter

MOSES LAKE — Grant County Commissioners have approved $1 million in funding for a new Grant County Animal Outreach shelter, if GCAO meets some conditions. That matches a similar $1 million commitment from the city of Moses Lake. 

The $2 million, said GCAO Chair Sara Thompson Tweedy, should pay most, if not all, of the cost of construction of a new facility. 

“We think we have just about what we need,” she said.

County commissioners approved the award of $1 million from American Rescue Plan Act funds Dec. 27. The money is contingent upon finding a site for the new facility. 

City Manager Kevin Fuhr wrote in answer to a question from the Columbia Basin Herald that Moses Lake City Council members approved up to $1 million from ARPA funds for the shelter project.

“We are working with the GCAO on an agreement, after which we would transfer funds to them for construction,” Fuhr wrote.

What the new shelter would look like, and its location, are still to be determined, Tweedy said.

“We are working with the county and possibly have a site identified around the fairgrounds that could be used,” Fuhr said. 

But there is, Tweedy said, a lot of work to do before a design can be started and a site selected. 

“We’re just in the beginning phases,” she said. “There is so much we have to do.” 

There are some things that GCAO officials know they want to include in a new shelter, such as a place for prospective pet owners to meet prospective pets. A commercial washer and dryer would make it easier to wash the pet beds and blankets that must be cleaned daily, she said. 

The money allocated by county and city officials will allow planning to go ahead, she said.

“Everything is going in the right direction,” she said. 

Animal shelter board members, commissioners and Moses Lake city officials have been discussing the existing facility, and possibly replacing it, for a while. Tweedy said the building is too small to accommodate the number of animals housed there and needs a lot of work besides.

“You have something that goes wrong every single day,” Tweedy said. “And it’s not minor things.”

Most of the shelter repairs take longer than a few hours or days to fix, she said — things like broken water pipes or an inadequate electrical system. The current shelter also suffers from other problems, such as a lack of an exercise area for the animals. Reducing the focus on maintenance would allow GCAO staff to focus on what Tweedy called the root problems of animal control in Grant County, such as promoting adoption and responsible pet ownership.

“It’s nice to see that it’s moving forward,” Tweedy said. “I’m very hopeful that it’s going to happen.”

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.

    A kitten evaluates a visitor at Grant County Animal Outreach. The project to build a new shelter received funding from Grant County and the city of Moses Lake.
 File photo   

    The existing Grant County Animal Outreach facility. Money has been allocated by Grant County and Moses Lake officials to help pay for a new shelter.
 File photo