Shelter deadlock prompts meeting

A visit to Sutter County's animal shelter could help loosen the logjam over how best to replace it.

Officials from the county, Yuba City and Live Oak will meet Monday at the shelter in an attempt to resolve a dispute over how to house the county's unwanted pets in coming years. The conference comes 10 months after county supervisors approved a design contract for a 10,000-square-foot replacement — a plan that has stalled amid Yuba City's concerns about the expected cost of $3 million to $3.5 million.

"I think this is a good approach to gain their acceptance, to answer their questions," said Randy Cagle, the county's assistant community services director. "... I think it'll go a long way to help them understand Sutter County is not looking to build a gold-plated Cadillac. We're trying to build a modern, functional shelter that meets the needs of the community we serve and lasts us for 40 years."

Yuba City Mayor Kash Gill said he is open to all possibilities for a new shelter but remains cost-conscious.

"It's a matter of looking at all the options," he said. "I want to be able to go to the taxpayers with this. It's their money that we're using; I want to make sure it's the best use of their dollars."

In an interview last month, Gill cautioned against pursuing "a Taj Mahal" to house unwanted animals in the midst of Yuba City's fraying finances. Earlier this week, city employees were sent letters that it would cut 40 positions, 16 through layoffs, if it could not close a projected $2 million budget shortfall by June 30.

Stan Cleveland, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said the county is determined to find a way to get an affordable animal shelter built.

"Sutter County does not build Taj Mahals," Cleveland said. "We don't do that. Have you seen what we build? Our buildings are as bare bones as you can get."

Yuba City earlier agreed to pay two-thirds of the new shelter's cost, but has sought to look into other locations or smaller sites, such as a 12,800-square-foot industrial warehouse on Von Geldern Way.

That building is on sale for $595,000 and already has water and sewer connections in place. However, Cleveland received an e-mail Friday with a $5.8 million retrofit estimate for the warehouse.

The shelter at 102 Second St. dates to the 1980s and was built with porous concrete blocks and wallboard, which animal control officers say makes it almost impossible to clean. Increasingly crowded conditions and an overtaxed septic system have raised the risk of viral outbreaks among pets kept there — parvovirus for dogs, feline leukemia among cats.

Animal control staff say a replacement shelter must have seamless, impermeable indoor surfaces to keep it disease-free, and also relieve the overcrowding that currently forces up to five dogs into spaces designed for one. A better facility also is expected to encourage more pet adoptions, a relief valve for a shelter that took in 4,434 animals last year.

Yuba City and Live Oak have contracted animal services to the county since the late 1960s. Council members and appointed officials from the three governments — along with two members of Swatt/Miers Architects, the design firm working with the county — form an ad-hoc committee reviewing the shelter plans.

Cleveland hopes Monday's meeting eliminates some options and leads to a "good, final direction" to follow toward building the shelter, with a decision made in March.