The Seward City Council passed Resolution 2021-078, authorizing the City Manager to enter into a contract with Dawson Construction for the design-build of the Seward Animal Shelter Project in the amount of $1,755,000, plus a 10% contingency, for a total amount not to exceed $1,930,500, and appropriating funds.
The resolution originally was postponed from July 12th. City Manager Janette Bower explains:
“At the last meeting the questions were regarding the general fund assigned fund balance. Also there was a question regarding the Motor Pool (Internal Service Fund) and how long the Motor Pool has been funded. It has been funded and utilized for 21 years and I provided balances for each of those funds as well.”
The current facility is deemed to not have enough space to adequately store food, medications, and supplies, or house the animals it serves, citing it as outdated and that it outlived its useful capacity. Also, the current facility has no indoor, heated, or plumbed restroom facilities for employees or the public.
Councilmember Ristine Casagranda proposed an amendment to the resolution that would have an Interfund Loan from the Motor Pool Internal Service Fund to be repaid over a period of 30 years, instead of 15 and to strike the interest rate in its entirety to pay annual payments of approximately $30,000 a year:
“The reason for this being is I don’t see anyway for the animal shelter to generate an additional $65,000 per year in their operations. We’re already giving the million, so I feel like the rest of the $755,000 should be made affordable to repay. We’ve never done loans where we charged ourselves an interest rate and I really don’t see the purpose for me to borrow money from myself and charge myself an interest rate. That is the reason behind the amendment. It does say that annual payments of approximately $30,000 per year so I know, I don’t have the access to the finances to make an exact approximation, but I feel like that’s pretty safe by making the 15 (years) double to 30.”
The amended version of the resolution passed and, according to corresponding documents, interior and exterior construction is set for March 2022 with a tentative completion date of May 12, 2022.