New animal shelter is coming together

Construction of a much-anticipated, $2.6 million animal-care facility in Coronado could be completed by December. The 3,400-square-foot facility has community cat and outdoor-exercise areas, and rooms for adoptions, examinations, grooming and laundry. It is expected to be a certified green building. Builders are promising an odorless and soundproof shelter. “We’re very excited about it,” said Louise Shirey, president of the Pacific Animal Welfare Society, or PAWS, of Coronado, a group instrumental in getting the shelter built. It’s been a long road for city officials, residents and animal lovers who have struggled for the past several years over the shelter’s delay, first due to location and then funding problems. But even those who protested the Ferry Landing-area site, because their homes are near it, say they will make the best of it. “Before construction began, the city was using it as a staging area for road repairs,” said Dave Hurt, 83, who was walking his dog Kaydee near the site, at 1395 First Street. “It will be much better than that.” The debate began when the city announced it would tear down the former shelter on Orange Avenue to make way for affordable housing for seniors. A temporary shelter was set up in the basement of the Police Department in 2006. A committee then began reviewing potential locations and making recommendations. Sites were removed, then reconsidered after hearing from residents who spoke against a shelter near their homes. But by June 2006, the city selected the site on First Street near A Avenue because it was a convenient site for a majority of residents. The site formerly held the city’s Engineering Department. Read the entire Union Tribune article here.