La Plata, MD – It appears more and more likely that the Tri-County Animal Shelter’s days in Hughesville may be numbered.
After the Charles County Commissioners opted to include up to $50,000 for a feasibility study on a new facility Tuesday, May 3 as part of their Fiscal Year 2017 budget, it’s beginning to look inevitable that the shelter serving all three Southern Maryland counties is not in the cards for the future.
The money appropriated by the Fiscal Year 2017 budget will study where a new shelter in Charles County might be located and which policies will govern the facility.
“The Tri-County Animal Shelter is obsolete,” Charles County Commissioner Ken Robinson [D-District 1] said. “When it was built, the population of the three counties isn’t even what Charles County is now. It is time to move forward with a modern facility.”
Robinson said he hoped the study can begin when the new fiscal year begins.
“It becomes funded July 1,” he said. “I’m planning on asking staff to begin bids and proposals prior to July 1 so when the study comes in we can begin right away.”
He expects the feasibility study to take at least a couple of months and hopes funding can be added to next year’s budget to begin construction, but said depending on how things go, that timetable could advance.
Robinson noted that initially, it appeared as though St. Mary’s County was interested in doing a joint venture but has since appropriated money for its own feasibility study, which signaled, at least in his mind, that all three counties are moving toward their own facilities.
“I think that’s really the right thing to do,” he stated.
Although it is too early to tell where the shelter might be constructed, Robinson added he hopes it will be centrally located.
“It is my hope that we will have a 100 percent euthanasia free facility,” he said. “I’d like to see a no-kill facility. I don’t know if that’s feasible, but certainly low-kill.”
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com