Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON (WMAL) – Prince William County is looking to the future when it comes to its animal shelter. The board of supervisors voted 7-1 Tuesday night to spend $14 million to build a new animal shelter. At 28,000 square feet the new shelter will be more than four times the size of the crowded 6,600 square foot facility on Bristow Road in Manassas.
“This is going to take care of our animal shelter needs for the next 40 years, and that’s what we should be doing at this point,” said Board of Supervisors Chair Corey Stewart.
Stewart said this has been a long time coming. During the recession the county froze spending on everything except building schools and hiring teachers and police officers. After the recession, the county started prioritizing projects and spending millions to build roads and libraries. With those items checked off the list, Stewart said it’s now time to replace the outdated and crowded 42-year-old shelter.
Supervisor Ruth Anderson said an audit of the shelter found the problems at the shelter are related to the building. In 2015, crowded conditions allowed a deadly virus to spread among cats.
“And then there’s the argument that perhaps we’re thinking about spending more on this than we do for our vulnerable human beings in our county, the homeless and so on. I’m a big advocate for helping the homeless,” Anderson said.
She and her staff crunched the numbers and found the county spends $70 million a year of federal, state and local money on the homeless.
The county has also spent more money on other facilities, according to Anderson including $30 million on the Central District Police Station and $32 million on the new Parkway Elementary School.
Anderson also pointed out that Virginia state law requires the county to have an animal shelter.
The sole dissenting vote was cast by Supervisor Pete Candland who agreed the county needs a new animal shelter but said he was concerned about the process and didn’t feel he had the information to make an educated decision.
The shelter is expected to open in 2020, according to Inside Nova.
Copyright 2017 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: Pixabay/ CC0 Creative Commons)
