By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph is finally set to get a new animal shelter.
Ground has been broken next to the St. Joseph Recycling center on the long awaited animal shelter, a $5 million dollar project that combines money from the city and money raised by Friends of the Animal Shelter
Ed Vanover with Friends says it’s an overwhelming sense of relief to finally have a new animal shelter coming, after over a decade of work by Friends of the Animal Shelter to get one
“Somedays we doubted we would ever get there, and just to finally be standing here turning the dirt is a great relief to me,” Vanover tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “Because we finally came the full cycle of where we wanted to be.”
It’s been a long road to get to this point. After original plans to build a new shelter on Corporate Drive were shut down due to costs, there were times it looked like a new shelter might not be in the cities future
Vanover with Friends says he always hoped this day would come
“I tried to remain positive, yes it’s going to happen, yes it’s going to happen, but sometimes it was oh Lord is it ever going to happen,” Vanover says. “And here we are today.”
Vanover said there were doubts it might happen around the time Friends had to shut down it’s campaign to raise money for the shelter
“When we shut the campaign down originally, we was coming to terms that ok we may be done, it may not happen, and then the city swooped right in, stepped right up, and here we are today,” Vanover explains.
The new shelter will include 13-thousand square feet of space, an upgrade from the current 8 thousand square feet facility, with several upgrades to holding facilities and areas for adopters
Vanover with Friends says the community support for the project has meant a lot, especially when it comes to helping raise the funds for the project
“The city of St. Joseph, the citizens, have always been behind us and backed us,” Vanover says. “And to be able to say, here you are you have a new animal shelter, it means a lot, it really does.”
The facility will also include larger holding areas for cats and dogs, as well as more space for adopters to interact with pets.
The new shelter is set to open in June of next year.
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