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Pueblo Firm to Build Animal Shelter

Posted on: Wednesday, 29 March 2006, 15:00 CST

By Margie Wood, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.

Mar. 29--Pueblo County commissioners awarded a $3.1 million contract on Tuesday for construction of the new animal shelter approved by voters in November 2004, and said the building should be completed within a year.

The contract went to Arc Valley Construction Inc., the lowest of seven bidders on the job. The groundbreaking ceremony at 4600 Eagleridge Circle is scheduled at 10:30 a.m. April 5.

The 2.9-acre building site was donated by WL Enterprises, and the LeVert W. Hoag Foundation donated $500,000 toward the project before the 2004 election date. In that vote, a temporary 1-mill property tax levy was approved to raise $3.9 million.

Animal Services Director Donna Straub said the "critter cruiser," a mobile animal adoption trailer, will be on display at the groundbreaking, and three doghouses will be built that day, eventually to be given to families who need them.

Dr. Wes Metzler of Pikes Peak Humane Society, which operates the shelter under contract with the city and county, thanked the commissioners and noted that the old shelter might have been shut down by the state if the local governments hadn't been willing to build a new one.

"It's fantastic when the community and government entities work together on a project," Straub said. And Commissioner Matt Peulen, a self-described dog lover, said, "A community cannot treat its citizens right if doesn't treat its animals decently."

Straub also told commissioners that the local animal response team won a state award for its actions during the Mason Gulch Fire last July. Animal Services worked with the Department of Emergency Management and the CSU Extension office to open an emergency shelter at the State Fairgrounds after Beulah and surrounding ranches were evacuated in the face of the fire.

In other action, commissioners allocated grants to several agencies from "Aid to Other Entities" and conservation trust funds: $26,000 to the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center; $2,000 to the Colorado City chamber of Commerce; $75,000 to Pueblo Zoological Society, of which $25,000 is earmarked for historic renovation; $262,500 to the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk of Pueblo authority; $3,500 to the city-county Human Relations Commission; $500 to Juneteenth Organization; $800 to the Alzheimer's Association; $5,000 to City-County Health Department for neighborhood cleanups in the county; and $100,000 to the State Fair.

Commissioners approved the Housing and Human Services department's application for a $100,000 federal emergency shelter grant. The county will pass almost all the money through to Catholic Charities, Posada, the YWCA and Crossroads Turning Points to provide direct services to people who are homeless or at risk of losing their homes.

Paul Brown of the 2010 Commission urged commissioners to support opening Gate 19 on the south side of Fort Carson, in order to help Pueblo County "participate in the benefits" of expected growth of the base.

Brown noted that Fort Carson is pushing for work at Gate 20, 4 miles north of Gate 19, because it will be the principal route to Peterson Air Force Base.

"There is no doubt (Gate 20) will be funded," Brown said. "Opening Gate 19 is much less certain."

But he said opening Gate 19 first would relieve congestion at Gate 20, for which the Colorado Department of Transportation says it won't have funding until 2008.

"The Army will do most of the work on Gate 19, and the CDOT money required for it will be much less than what is required for Gate 20, and therefore easier and quicker to obtain," he said.

Commissioners agreed, and Commissioner Loretta Kennedy added that Gate 19 will provide better mobility for the soldiers living in Pueblo County. The county expects to become home to more Fort Carson soldiers because real estate in Colorado Springs and Fountain is more expensive.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.

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Source: The Pueblo Chieftain

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