Animal-lover Donna Clawson of Conway said she feels like she’s been on a treadmill the past 10 years trying to get traction for an animal shelter in Faulkner County, but the project is finally going somewhere.
The Faulkner County Quorum Court unanimously voted in September
to release $30,000 of the $1.1 million in an animal-shelter account, the first significant action in the 11-year history of the effort. Proceeds from a voluntary 1.5-mill property tax have been accumulating since 2005. The Quorum Court has a resolution that no construction will start on the shelter until the account reaches $1.5 million.
Clawson, a retired teacher, is one of five members of the Faulkner County Animal Shelter Advisory Board.
“We’ve met about a million times,” she said. “We’ve visited seven dog shelters, looked at four plans, talked to architects, talked to [Director] Shonna Osborne at the Conway shelter, so we have a pretty good idea of what we’re doing.”
Clawson is a member of the Friends of the Conway Animal Shelter Board, as is advisory board member Chris Quinn, who serves as its president.
Clawson said she and other shelter advisory board members went to
Faulkner County Judge Jim Baker “because we can’t get any further” without money to get the ball rolling, including hiring an architect or paying for a survey for a site.
“I asked specifically for $30,000,” she said. “Judge Baker was so gracious.”
He has also offered to let the group build on existing county land to save money.
To confirm his commitment, Clawson said, last week Baker told the advisory board to order a Future Home of the Faulkner County Animal Shelter sign and place it on county land east of the Faulkner County Justice Building on South German Lane in Conway.
Clawson said Baker is the reason she feels confident that an animal shelter finally will become a reality. He is the fourth county judge she has worked with on a proposed shelter.
“The others were great to work with, too,” she said, naming Faulkner County Judge Allen Dodson. “Judge Baker is making this a priority. By him making this a priority, we will get [a shelter] built. There is such a need,” Clawson said. “It’s not just stray dogs and all that — it’s a safety issue for Faulkner County citizens. There are dogs running loose, and you feel sorry for the dogs, … but it’s a public-safety priority, or at least it should be.”
Although the South German Lane site is not a done deal, the location is Clawson and Baker’s favorite.
“My first option would be to put it where we might get some inmate work,” Baker said. “There’s probably 5 to 7 acres not being used, and I would think you could tie in parking. … You wouldn’t be taking up much space. I think there are some pretty good benefits of putting it there.”
Clawson said she envisions a Paws in Prison program there, and detainees could work in the shelter.
“It’s a good, secure place, and it just kind of makes sense,” she said.
Baker said that by law, he has the authority to choose the site. However, he said the land on South German Lane hasn’t been surveyed, so it might not be suitable.
He said his second choice for the shelter site would be state property, a former rodeo arena the city of Conway is leasing south of the Don Owen Recreation Complex on Lower Ridge Road and east of the rodeo arena.
“I don’t own it; I don’t have any control over it,” he said.
“Before we start any kind of construction, we will weigh everything available to us,” Baker said.
He said it’s not just a matter of construction costs; it has been estimated that a shelter will take at least $250,000 a year to operate, depending on its size.
Clawson said only about 6 percent of Faulkner County residents pay the annual voluntary tax that goes into the shelter fund. She urged people to “check that box” on their taxes, which are due Oct. 17.
“It’s 6 percent — even if we got 10 percent, we’d have enough [money] in no time,” she said. “The whole deal is, if people will pay their voluntary tax, we’re going to be able to support the shelter, and it’s not going to be a problem.”
Clawson said the group also intends to apply for grants.
Baker said the Quorum Court could change its resolution and vote to start building the shelter before the fund reaches $1.5 million.
Justice of the Peace Randy Higgins of Greenbrier, chairman of the Faulkner County Quorum Court Courts and Public Safety Committee, which is overseeing the development of the shelter, said that based on the number of animals expected to be housed, “we’re estimating that we’re going to need at least $1.5 million to build, and that’s a good target number.”
He said the construction and planning of a county animal shelter falls under the purview of the county judge.
“Then we’ll decide whether it belongs to the sheriff, or a department under the sheriff’s department,” Higgins said.
The Conway Animal Shelter is under the direction of the Conway Police Department.
The discussion of whether to have a combined city-county shelter has gone on for years.
Clawson, who is also a member of the Conway Animal Shelter Board, said she has changed her mind about a city-county shelter.
“We all went into it trying to be flexible. Truthfully, I didn’t want them to merge. But getting into this and looking at the Conway shelter, [it is] getting older and [doesn’t] have room to expand. It makes sense to merge, and the [city] shelter would have money coming in.”
Baker agreed with Clawson.
“I don’t know if Faulkner County and Conway need two animal-control shelters. If the county could build it and get Conway to operate it, … I think we would all be better served,” he said.
This discussion is not new for Osborne, who is director of the Conway Animal Welfare Unit, either. She is in her 13th year at the shelter.
“I’ve been here since 2003, and from the minute I walked in the door, this has been always kind of hovering,” she said. “To taxpayers, they feel like nothing has moved forward, but it has moved forward, but it’s just been in the background, and you just don’t see it,” she said.
“The thing is, you have to understand, while this has been going on for 10 years, it has just now come full circle that there has even been enough money to do something with.
“I’m not opposed to putting our heads together and coming up with one big plan.”
The Conway shelter has had growing pains for years, she said. The facility, which is at the Conway Sanitation Department off U.S. 64, can hold 25 dogs, plus another five dogs that are quarantined, she said. It has 16 cages for cats, ranging from single animals to a mama cat and a litter.
Her goal is to make sure the animals are adopted to keep euthanasia low, she said.
She has accompanied advisory board members on trips to look at other shelters.
“You’ve got this money, and you want to make it right not only for now, but you want to make it right for five years from now, 10 years from now,” Osborne said.
She praised Higgins for his work to bring everyone together.
Higgins is also in favor of having a combined shelter. He said it doesn’t make sense to duplicate services — having two directors, for example — if a county shelter is built in the city.
“It’s good stewardship of the taxpayers’ money” to have a combined shelter, he said. The City Council would have to approve any joint venture. Baker said the site would have to be mutually agreed upon if the city and county merge shelters.
“The county is prepared to do it on our own,” Higgins added.
Justice of the Peace Steve Goode, another member of the Courts and Public Safety Committee, said his preference would also be a combined shelter.
“[The animal shelter has] got to be good for the county and good for the city,” he said. “I think it would be a great partnership there. That’s got to be fleshed out.”
However, Goode said he would rather see the shelter built in the county, possibly on property where the road shop is located off U.S. 65.
Sheriff Matt Rice said he doesn’t have a strong opinion on the issue of a combined shelter.
“It doesn’t matter to me; we just need a shelter bad in this county,” he said.
Rice said last week that the Faulkner County Sheriff’s Office has received 460 animal-complaint calls so far this year.
“We’re taking numerous, numerous calls every day,” he said. “Yesterday, I think by noon, [deputies] were already on five calls.
“Our deputies are tied up chasing animal complaints, … and we have to tell the public ‘I’m sorry, we have nowhere to put them,’ and the public gets upset with us.”
Rice said deputies contact animal-rescue groups, the Conway shelter or nearby shelters to help handle the problem.
“If it’s a vicious dog or something that needs to be taken care of, we will call one of these groups, or we’ve used Mayflower or Pulaski County [shelters]. We have worked with Conway before, but a lot of times, Conway’s filled. Mayflower’s been full, too. If it’s just a stray dog running around not causing problems, we try to call somebody to pick it up.”
He agreed with the recent Quorum Court action.
“I think they’re moving in the right direction; we’ll just have to wait and see. There’s nobody who would like to see it more than the Sheriff’s Office,” Rice said.
Goode said the Quorum Court’s release of $30,000 “is a big step in the right direction.”
“We’ve been talking dogs and cats for eight years, longer than that,” Goode said. “Justice Higgins deserves a huge credit — even though it wasn’t something that was his passion, he had the wherewithal and backbone to say, ‘We’ve got to get something done.’”
Goode and Higgins praised the advisory board. In addition to Clawson, board members are Susan Shaddox, chairwoman, and Chris Quinn, both of Conway; Catherine Swift of Clinton; and Vickie Crutchfield, who lives near Mayflower.
“All those ladies have done a phenomenal job; they’ve been easy to work with,” Goode said. “They were skeptical of the court, I think, at first, but after we all sat down, I think those ladies bought into the vision that Randy and the court had. They’ve taken responsibility for those animals.
“This is really just a personal-responsibility problem. If people would take care of their animals, we wouldn’t have to build [a shelter],” Goode said.
Clawson said a spay-and-neuter program has to be part of the overall animal-shelter plan.
She said the advisory committee has researched what the facility needs, from the type of ventilation to the kind of wires used for the cages.
“There’s been a lot of work going on to get it to this point,” she said. “We’re so far ahead of where we’ve ever been able to be. Everybody’s been working on this for years and years; it’s certainly not just been me. Rescues around here are just thrilled because they’re just overwhelmed.
“We’re getting it done, but we need the community’s support.”
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.