By Hayley Kappes

The Daily News

Published May 5, 2011

TEXAS CITY — Animals at the Galveston County shelter will move from their cramped kennels to a roomier home once construction on the new $5 million Animal Resource Center is finished by the end of June.

Once construction is done, officials will halt adoptions for a couple days to move animals to the new building and allow staff members to become acquainted with the new setup, Ronnie Schultz, the county’s environmental health services director, said.

The center’s construction budget is $5.5 million, but the total cost likely will come in below that number, county architect Dudley Anderson said.

Crews are scheduled to renovate the existing building, which opened in 1993, by removing a majority of its kennels and converting the space to an intake area where a veterinarian technician will assess animals.

“It’s going to undergo a vicious cleaning,” Anderson said. “It doesn’t smell real good in there. That’s because the HVAC systems are overworked. There’s more activity in that building than there was meant to be.”

Between 800 and 900 stray animals a month come through the shelter’s doors, Gwen Norman, administrative assistant and animal control dispatcher, said.

The new building, at 15,090 square feet, is more than three times the size of the current facility, Anderson said.

Architects designed the layout with the intention of promoting adoptions.

An entrance off the main lobby will lead to the adoption mall, which will allow people to peruse dogs and cats separated by glass partitions that reduce noise and odor, Schultz said.

People can interact with animals in a separate room or outside in fenced green spaces.

The building features 106 dog kennels, 76 cat cages and three cat “colony” rooms where multiple felines will be on display for potential adopters.

Animal control officials plan to house one dog per kennel, unlike the current shelter where space constraints force multiple dogs in the same area.

“It’s designed so there will be no nose-to-nose contact with animals, which reduces disease transmission among the kennels,” Kurt Koopmann, county health district spokesman, said.

Sick animals will be kept in isolation areas separate from the adoption center.

Other upgrades include indoor and outdoor runs for dogs and cats, a grooming room and an education room, which will accommodate animal control officer training, Schultz said.

The facility features an automated cleaning system that will mix sanitizing chemicals for staff members. Guillotine doors will separate animals on the outside while the kennel is cleaned.

The complex also has fenced outdoor exercise spaces with walking trails and a yard, where county officials would like to have dog trainers put on agility shows and teach obedience classes, Schultz said.

Workers and volunteers at the shelter are counting down the days before the upgraded center opens.

The shelter is experiencing its usual spring influx of baby animals, and the economic recession has contributed to a decrease in adoptions, Norman said.

“It’s exciting because everyday we come to work and see something new coming up next door,” Norman said. “It’s going to be wonderful. Here you see more animals in cages than there should be because they’re on stray holds. It’s tough to see that.”