Iowa City to discuss options for animal shelter management

IOWA CITY – The city of Iowa City will discuss Monday whether it wants to continue to own and operate an animal shelter, possibly with an eye toward saving money.

One option would have the city contracting with a local nonprofit organization to manage the shelter. That type of arrangement takes place in nine of 14 cities reviewed by city management intern Simon Andrew.

The Iowa City Animal Care and Adoption Center serves other Johnson County communities but is staffed by city employees, plus volunteers.

Iowa City funded 68 percent of the shelter's operations in fiscal year 2010, but 56 percent of the animals came from Iowa City, Andrew wrote in a memo released Thursday. Johnson County and the cities of Coralville and Solon also contribute, and donations help pay expenses.

Licensing fees are only collected from Iowa City residents, according to Andrew.

The City Council will take up the matter at its work session Monday.

Some cities have moved toward the nonprofit model to save money, Andrew said. An obstacle for Iowa City in that approach would be the lack of a local organization with experience in running a shelter, he said, although the Johnson County Humane Society could be asked if it would be interested in doing so.

The city also could explore having the other communities contribute not only to operational expenses but also to the cost of a new shelter that is going to be built, Andrew said. Also, animal owners could pay more of the impoundment costs to lessen the burden on property taxpayers, he said.

The city currently is researching firms to design a new animal shelter to replace the one destroyed in the 2008 flood, Police Chief Sam Hargadine and Public Works Director Rick Fosse wrote in a separate memo.

The facility is to be located on the south side of town at 3800 Napoleon Lane, off Gilbert Street.

A tentative date to finish construction is May 2014, they wrote.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has pledged $1.4 million to build a 7,000-square-foot shelter comparable to the one lost in the flood, although the city has debated whether to construct a larger one.