Construction crews tear down I.C. animal shelter

IOWA CITY - A tear-down crew worked to level the flood-damaged Iowa City Animal Care and Adoption Center, 111 Kirkwood Ave., on Tuesday while the shelter's staff continued to operate out of its temporary location nearby.

Center Director Misha Goodman said her crew and the animals are “getting by” at 4852 Sand Rd., where they landed after the Floods of 2008, but they look forward to moving into a new space just west of the Salt Storage Building in Napoleon Park.

“Oh, we're ripping it apart pretty good,” Goodman said of the temporary facility. The animals are hard on the building because it was never intended to serve as a shelter, she added.

Goodman said the Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide about $1.6 million to replace the 7,000-square-foot shelter. However, she said, Jackson & Ryan Architects, which specializes in shelter facilities, has recommended building a 16,000-square-foot expanded facility instead.

No decisions have been made yet about the size of the new shelter, she said. Funding sources would have to be identified to pay the difference in cost for a larger building.

Construction is slated to begin in the spring of 2013, Goodman said.