Animal shelter still in temporary home; should city outsource or merge operation?

CEDAR RAPIDS – Both the heat and humidity were on the climb inside. The 40-plus kenneled dogs told you so. They were barking and howling like life depended on it. And Kris Gulick and Brent Oleson were in a car headed to Omaha.

Such is the state of affairs of animal care and control in Cedar Rapids, two years after the June 2008 flood destroyed the city's substandard animal shelter out along the Cedar River, a shelter that had weathered a first career as a sewage-treatment plant. The city's operation now “temporarily” shelters dogs and cats in an ill-equipped, light-industrial building in northeast Cedar Rapids.

Gulick, a Cedar Rapids City Council member, and Oleson, a Linn County supervisor, went to Omaha to see the animal control and shelter operation there, which serves the city of Omaha and the county around it and is run by a non-profit agency, the Nebraska Humane Society, not by government.

The trip came, in part, because Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett, for one, has suggested that the city look at getting out of part or all of the animal control business.

A non-profit organization like Omaha's is one option, an option the city of Des Moines has taken, though Polk County outside of Des Moines still provides public animal control.

Both Gulick and Oleson came back impressed with the Omaha operation, which is housed in what had been a grocery store.

“I was blown away,” says Oleson. “What a jewel it is.”

Gulick says the animals liked it: “The way they had designed it kept the stress down and reduced the amount of barking,” he says.

Linn County already has a non-profit entity, the Cedar Valley Humane Society, which has a shelter just east of Cedar Rapids and which provides service outside Cedar Rapids and Marion.

In the past, its board of directors has expressed no interest in merging with the Cedar Rapids operation, and Bernie Lettington, president of the board, on Thursday said nothing has changed in that regard.

Even so, Oleson, now a member of the Cedar Valley Humane Society's board, says he will push to convene a discussion among entities in Cedar Rapids, Linn County, Iowa City, Johnson County and Jones County.

Gulick, though, points out that there is another player in the mix – the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA is insisting that the city, two years after the 2008 flood, present options for a new or rebuilt animal shelter. To date, FEMA has obligated $1.115 million for such a facility, which could cost $3 million to build.

Greg Eyerly, the city's flood-recovery director, says FEMA wants to see three cost options: One for rebuilding the flooded site; one for building a new facility at Kirkwood Community College; and one for a third option.

Gulick says the Kirkwood option comes with the ability to collaborate with the college's veterinarian technician program, which shelter officials in Omaha called “a no-brainer” to take advantage of, he says.

Eyerly hopes an Oleson-style community discussion among interested players can occur before mid-August, which is when Eyerly would like to have a site for a new facility selected.

Diane Webber, manager of the city's operation since last October, comes with a unique background in both public animal-care work and years of work for the Humane Society of the United States.

Webber says there will be “astronomical” benefits for both a shelter and Kirkwood Community College if they join forces on the project.

As for outsourcing to a non-profit, Webber, who served as a Humane Society regional director for a 10-state region, says the trend in the last five years is for non-profits to get out of the animal control part of their contracts with government. Revenue, many are finding, doesn't cover costs, and they don't think non-profits “should be subsidizing a government responsibility,” she says some non-profits have concluded. At the same time, governments often come to think, incorrectly, that outsourcing to a non-profit won't cost them anything, she says.

For her, a move of the city's up to 90 sheltered cats and 44 sheltered dogs can't come soon enough.

“You hear stressed animals,” Webber says of the racket of barking in the temporary shelter, which has no air conditioning, poor drainage and a poor exchange of air. There aren't barriers between cages, so dogs look at other dogs in every direction, setting off barking fits to defend turf, she explains.

Even so, the temporary facility is exceptionally clean and seemingly in good order.

“This is a very grave concern of mine,” Webber says. “People see that it's bright and clean and think it's OK.”