Steward: Animal Shelter Four Years Away; At Least

If you’re waiting for a new animal shelter to be built in Waterford, don’t hold your breath.

Dealing with financial strain and annoyed by recent comments by Animal Shelter Committee Chairwoman Margaret Ormond, First Selectman Dan Steward said he would not endorse appropriating any money for an animal shelter for at least another four years.

“We have people-related needs we are unable to find financing for,” Steward said. “We need to take care of that first before we can help animals.”

Steward also said Ormond’s recent letter to the editor published in The Day and comments in Tuesday’s were both inaccurate and unproductive. Ormond should be dealing with the integral players directly instead of “creating hype in the media,” he said.

“It's not happening the way they are approaching it,” Steward said. “It's not working the way it’s going.”

Financial Strain

Once it bonds out the high school, the town will be $100 million in debt, Steward said. Bonding for an animal shelter, expected to cost at least $500,000, would not be fair to the taxpayers, he said.

Board of finance member George Peteros, who made much the same , agreed. The town has human needs that are not addressed right now that have to trump the “perceived needs of stray animals that happen to cross the border,” he said.

“That was a very gutsy move by Dan,” Peteros said upon hearing Steward's comments. “It’s highly consistent with my own views and I applaud that he said that.”

Fellow board member J.W. “Bill” Sheehan would not comment either way on the shelter. He did say that 25 years ago, when Millstone paid more than 80 percent of the town’s taxes, it would be no problem, but “we don’t have those dollars anymore.”

Meanwhile, the committee has only raised $12,000, Steward said. Comparatively, the soccer club raised over $100,000 to put lights at Spera Field, he said.

Media “Hype”

At Monday’s ad-hoc animal shelter facility committee meeting, Ormond said her group was asked to go “above and beyond” what other committees had to go through, and the committee would need to start looking for professional help. Those statements are inaccurate, Steward and Town Purchasing Agent Kate Rotella said.

The committee is looking to create a request for proposals (RFP) for the building, meaning companies will submit their plans and a price for a new animal shelter. Creating the RFP will create more work for the committee, Ormond said (leading to the “above and beyond” comment), and the group should start looking for professional help to move it along, she said.

This is not true, Rotella said. The RFP will be created by her, with the burden falling on her department’s shoulders, not the committee's, Rotella said.

Also, creating this RFP is something purchasing does all the time, Rotella said. Most of the work on creating an animal shelter RFP is complete now, and would be ready to go out soon, Rotella said.

Rotella and Steward both said they have told Ormond this.

Also, in an August 12 letter to the editor printed in The Day, Ormond said the town facility failed state inspection in 14 of 17 categories. However, the facility has not failed inspection, Steward said.

While the animal shelter has deficiencies, it still is “usable,” Steward said. A shelter needs to be a “healthy and safe environment,” but nothing more, he said.

The ad-hoc animal shelter facility study committee was charged with finding where the shelter would go, the size needed for the shelter and the cost of the shelter, Steward said. That is almost complete, and then the building can be prioritized along with other capital projects, he said.

Ormond, perhaps weary of Steward’s comments of “creating hype in the media,” said she didn’t want to comment on the first selectman’s “provocative comments." Ormond said she will be meeting with Steward on Monday, and it will be handled then.