Group pulls money for new animal shelter as Manatee questions whether to build it
As the foundation that oversees Bishop Animal Shelter finalizes an agreement to donate the facility to Manatee County government, the Board of County Commissioners says it may revise existing plans to build a county shelter in East Manatee.
The commission’s second thoughts have already led to a local nonprofit pulling out of a deal to help pay for the construction of a new shelter. The group’s president accused some commissioners of “misrepresentation” and “half-truths” during their discussion on whether to keep their original commitment.
The non-profit Mary Parker Foundation announced in February that it wants to give its new state-of-the-art facility to the county and exit the business of animal welfare. With a brand new shelter on the way, most commissioners said they can’t justify spending millions of dollars on another one.
“Our citizens made a commitment to help pay for this new shelter and, to me, the majority of the board appears to have let the community down,” Commissioner Carol Whitmore said in an interview with the Bradenton Herald on Thursday.
Over the past few years, county leaders have expressed a desire to build another shelter in East Manatee to replace the existing shelter in Palmetto, which is almost always above capacity. That shelter opened in the 1980s with enough space for 80 dogs. Today, the shelter houses about 120 dogs on average, but that number gets as high as 190, according to county staff.
The county’s budget includes $6 million for the shelter that the county planned to build before news of the Bishop donation. That shelter was originally planned to be built off of Lena Road for around $10 million.
As the board reviewed that project along with other infrastructure improvements included in the county’s 5-year Capital Improvement Plan on Wednesday, Commissioner George Kruse suggested putting the Lena Road animal shelter on pause until the county can determine how taking over the Bishop Animal Shelter at 5718 21st Ave. W. in Bradenton will affect their overall animal capacity and any associated operating costs.
“Bishop came along and kind of checked all the boxes for the reason for the new shelter in the first place,” said Kruse. “People said no one wanted to go to the existing shelter (in Palmetto) because of its location. Well, we fixed that. People said there was not enough capacity. We fixed that. They said it was old and not air-conditioned. We fixed that.”
The Bishop agreement hasn’t been finalized yet, but the organization leaders have indicated that they plan to donate their new shelter, their old shelter, also on 21st Avenue West, and all of their animals into the county’s possession. That could add significantly to the county’s animal shelter operations budget, Kruse noted.
“I personally think we should open up Bishop first and see what we need,” said Kruse, who pitched the idea of potentially using retail space in East Manatee to build out an adoption center, instead of a full shelter.
“I think a storefront without using taxpayer dollars for new construction is where I think we should be going until we can truly assess our needs,” he continued.
Kruse found support from some of his fellow commissioners, who said Bishop’s gift goes a long way to solve the county’s capacity problems.
“A lot more animals, I think, are gonna be adopted from that location than there were at the previous shelter,” Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge said.
But other commissioners, including Whitmore, an outspoken animal advocate, said they didn’t like the idea of the board going back on its previous commitment to build the Lena Road shelter.
“To say this isn’t needed now, I don’t think is fair,” she told the board.
Whitmore pushed the board to consider following through with the Lena Road animal shelter. She noted that Bishop shared its new shelter’s architectural plans with the county, which could save money on the total cost of building the facility.
“I honestly think assessing Bishop is great, but scratching the animal shelter out east, I just think we shouldn’t move in that direction. I think we look at Bishop and continue with our commitment that we’ve already said on the animal shelter out east,” said Commissioner Reggie Bellamy. “Let it be known, there’s a difference between philosophy and whether we can afford it.”
Speaking at Wednesday’s meeting, Pam Freni, president of the Animal Network group that pledged to raise and donate $2 million toward the county’s $10 million animal shelter said she was disappointed to see commissioners back away from that prior commitment. As of this week, the organization had raised $332,859 toward its goal.
In an email sent to County Administrator Scott Hopes on Thursday, Freni officially withdrew from the agreement with the county, citing the board’s discussion that leaned away from actually building the planned shelter.
“The kind of misrepresentation, half-truths and playing to the camera during yesterday’s meeting was an incredible insult to those of who have in good faith worked extremely hard for the last two years and we have decided to no longer be a part of it,” she wrote.
Commissioner James Satcher expressed gratitude for Bishop’s assistance and likened the donation to a present on Christmas Day. He also reminded commissioners to consider the financial burden it will add. Despite the lack of a formal agreement, the county is already planning to pay $4 million on improvements that have to be made at the Bishop’s old shelter that is aging and in need of serious repairs.
“It’s my understanding that the second building needs to be replaced because it is not usable at this time,” said Hopes, who added that the county is expecting that formal agreement from Bishop’s lawyers “any day.”
Because the discussion took place at a budget workshop meeting, the board was not able to vote on pulling the the $6 million set aside for Lena Road animal shelter.
“Trust me, we’ll have this discussion again,” said Commissioner Vanessa Baugh, who first suggested putting the new shelter on hold in January.
Moving forward, however, commissioners suggested working closely with other private animal rescue organizations in order to provide services at a reduced cost to taxpayers.
This story was originally published June 16, 2021 at 6:27 PM.
