2022 12 20 City Council Agenda Packet

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PUBLIC WORKS

TO: Mike Keith, Interim City Manager
FROM: Kevin L. Helms, Project Manager

Ce: Ben Burchfield, Public Works Director
DATE: December 6, 2022

SUBJECT: Animal Shelter Project

Summary

At the time of my hiring in August of 2021, the City had completed an analysis to construct a new Animal
Shelter and determined it was not the most feasible route to pursue. This analysis also determined the
former Daily Post Athenian Building to be a more feasible option and the City was in the process of
finalizing the purchase of the existing building. Remodeling this location would meet our needs and cost
less than new construction. On August 23, 2021, an agreement was signed with Allen & Hoshall (AH) to
conduct the needed architectural and design work to convert this facility into a new Animal Shelter
housing animal intake and holding, animal adoption, a veterinary clinic, and with minimal space left for
another undetermined use. The City would be financially responsible for the construction needed to
house the animal intake and holding services along with the animal adoption area. The City finalized the
purchase of the facility on September 3, 2021.

On September 10°, design work began in earnest. The City provided AH with a rough layout of our
vision of the facility, while noting some specific design points which needed to be incorporated into the
final design. On September 16", we advised AH the McMinn Regional Humane Society (MRHS) had
some concerns about our original layout, and we scheduled a meeting with them the following week to
try and better incorporate their ideas into the rough layout. We advised we would be sending an
updated rough layout following the meeting. On the 23”, we notified AH the differences were more
significant than we anticipated, and we needed to assess the facility to see if these ideas were feasible
before getting too far into design. A meeting was scheduled for October 6" with City staff, MRHS
representatives, and AH personnel to review firsthand the needs of MRHS which yielded an updated
floorplan on October 8" intended to include as many of the items from the prior meeting as were
feasible.

A series of design changes developed through sending draft floorplans for review and comment via
electronic means, as well as some in person meetings continued into late December and yielded several
different iterations of the facility. As the design was beginning to approach a final rough draft, the City
and MRHS approved a Memorandum of Understanding in December to be sure all parties understood

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