SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. (KGUN) — Staff at the Nancy J Brua Animal Care Center, 6799 E. Highway 90 in Sierra Vista, are feeling a bit of relief, now that their expansion projectis complete. The project added 18 dog kennels to the property.
“It’s just a new chapter for the future of the shelter,” said Animal Control Supervisor Arleen Garcia. “I’ve had a wish list of things that I would like to see for the shelter, and this is one of those things that I can check off that list, is to be able to expand.”
The $2 million expansion took almost a year to finish because of obstacles during the construction process. The expansion added 14 adoption kennels and four kennels for quarantine areas. Now, they can have 87 dogs in the shelter at one time. Dion Ethell, President of the Friends of the Sierra Vista Animal Shelter, says the space allows the shelter to save money and keep the animals in one place, instead of relying on fosters when they’re full.
“Usually we would have to then take those excess pets and store them somewhere in the community, and that would mean taking them and boarding them somewhere, and that costs money, and so now we have some ability to be able to do that here,” he said.
A covering was also placed over the outdoor kennels.
To celebrate the completion of this project, the shelter is having an open house on Saturday, and all of the adoption fees are being paid by Concord General Contracting— the company that completed the project.
“We knew that whenever we were going to be working out here, we wanted to make sure that we could help out Sierra Vista as much as possible finding homes for these animals, because again, one can kennel goes empty, we can fill it within the the dog or cat that needs help,” said CEO for Concord General Contracting, Grenee Martacho.
The free event starts at noon, and ends at 5 p.m.
“We’re just very, very excited to finally be able to show the community, the public, everything that’s been going on here the past several months,” Garcia said.
The work isn’t done yet. At an exclusive ribbon-cutting event, Friday morning, City of Sierra Vista City Manager Chuck Potucek announced that they plan to add the costs for the second phase of the project into next year’s budget.
That phase includes adding a new puppy room to the courtyard.
“If we do have an outbreak of, let’s say, Parvo, then maybe we can seclude just those Parvo pups to this room and be able to take care of them and not spread it around to anybody else in the general population,” Garcia said.
The City is in its budgeting process currently.
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Alexis Ramanjulu is a reporter in Cochise County for KGUN 9. She began her journalism career reporting for the Herald/Review in Sierra Vista, which she also calls home. Share your story ideas with Alexis by emailing alexis.ramanjulu@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook.
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