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Faulkner County administrator gives update on shelter progress after residents express frustrations

The Faulkner County Animal Shelter has been planned for several years and several residents reached out asking us to look into the project's status.

FAULKNER COUNTY, Ark. — After years of planning to build an animal shelter in Faulkner County, people who live there reached out to us expressing their frustrations about the status— mainly the fact that there still isn't one.

Meanwhile, the County Administrator explained that they've been making progress.

"We just need our animal shelter for all these animals," Faulkner County resident, DJ Eldredge said.

She rescues animals around Faulkner County and tries to take them to the Conway city shelter, but that one only accepts animals found in the city. 

"So where do we take our county animals?  I've called every rescue place that I can find around Faulkner County. Nobody has room for them," Eldredge explained.

She reached out to us with her concerns wondering when the Faulkner County shelter will open and said she's paid the voluntary tax for the shelter for at least three years. 

"Where's the money at? What are they using it for," she asked.

We brought those questions directly to Faulkner County Administrator Randy Higgins who said they're currently waiting for bid documents from the architect to move forward with construction. 

"That'll take 60 to 90 days to actually develop those, those documents will be able to utilize to actually go out for bid so that we can start getting actual prices of what it's going to take to remodel the facility that we have and have it prepared," Higgins said.

County officials plan to turn a Springhill flea market into a shelter. 

Over the last 15 years, Higgins said the county has collected more than $2 million for the shelter through a voter-approved millage. Their current balance for the project is $1.5 million after buying the flea market building and funding a county-wide spay and neuter program.

Higgins explained that the county is still figuring out how much it will cost to actually operate the shelter.

He added that they're considering some proposed American Rescue Plan funding to build the shelter and use the $1.5 million collected through taxes to operate the shelter for a few years.

"There's been discussions about how long it would take, there's never been a cast iron definitive date on that," he said.

Higgins said their goal is to have the shelter completed next summer. 

   

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