EVANSVILLE, Wyo. — The Evansville Town Council took another step toward opening its own animal shelter on Monday, approving a bid for the pre-fab construction and delivery of a facility. The bid approved was from Trailside Structures LLC in the amount of $210,221.40.
The finished building will be 60 feet by 20 feet and will have space to hold 11 animals. According to town engineer Shane Porter, representatives from Trailside Structures estimated that the building will be ready and delivered in mid-September.
To ensure that Evansville retains an animal shelter before the town’s new shelter is ready, the council also approved a memorandum of understanding with the city of Glenrock to utilize its shelter.
Per the stipulations of the MOU, Evansville will pay Glenrock $10 per day for every animal held by the Glenrock shelter taken in from Evansville that is not picked up by its owner. The agreement also states that Glenrock may provide food for Evansville’s animals and be reimbursed by the town. Evansville will also remain responsible for veterinary services for the animals being housed from its custody.
“This is just a stopgap measure … that will allow us to house animals at that facility for a certain price, just to allow the Town of Evansville to finalize its facility,” town attorney Scott Murray said.
Both the vote to award the bid contract and the vote to approve the MOU passed without dissent from the council, though members Greg Flesvig and Alona Vigneault were absent.
Evansville recently made the decision to pursue its own animal shelter, after Metro Animal Shelter in Casper proposed forming a joint powers board, which town officials ultimately decided made the agreement unfeasible.
Under the proposed rules of the joint powers board, Natrona County’s municipalities that surround Casper, like Evansville and Mills, would need to pay into the board in order to have animals brought to the local animal shelter. In May, Evansville Mayor Candace Machado said the amount asked of Evansville, determined by the town’s population, did not make sense given how infrequently Evansville utilized the shelter.
Also a cause for concern, Evansville Police Chief Mike Thompson previously said, is the possibility of being locked into something the town ultimately doesn’t agree with.
“Based on the talks they were having — and this is all tentative and up in the air — they would always be able to outvote us,” Thompson told Oil City News in April. “They’re talking about whether to find a new facility vs. rehabilitating the one they have. They could say that the cost of a new building is $3 million, but in three or so years it could be a $10 million facility. Let’s say it is a $6.5 million facility. Our portion of that would be $294,000. How do we budget that when we’re a small municipality that already works really hard to stay in the black?”
