The city of Iowa Park re-visited plans to construct a new Animal Reclaim Center Monday night. The ciity council approved an ordinance to advertise a request for bid.

Four months ago, city officials rejected a $400,000 proposal to design and construct a new facility. Jerry Flemming, Iowa Park City Manager, said the city spent the following months figuring out what they could do to make it more affordable.

“We backed off and re-grouped,” Flemming said. “The original proposal was for design and construction. Since then, we have done an in-house design. This time we are just looking for the construction of the facility and not the design of it.”

Flemming says they have simplified the proposal.

“We made a design that we can do in pieces, if we choose,” Flemming said. “If we have to divide out the foundation work from the actual building itself, we can also do that. It is a lot more simple where the previous one was a far more complex request.”

Changes would also include minor tweaks, such as taking out a vet room, cat room and using chain link for kennels instead of stainless steel.

However, Flemming said there is available spaces in other areas for those things. Flemming said the limit is still $200,000, but the city may be flexible.

“It all depends on the market and how hungry vendors are,” Flemming said. “We do not want to see people lose money on our projects. That usually results in problems later on. We would like to have a project that we can afford and will be an effective project for a contractor to build and make money on it as well.”

The city may have to take on some debt if a bid passes, but Flemming said that will be discussed after bids come in and remains optimistic.

“We are pretty optimistic that this project can be built within the budget we have for it,” Flemming said. “Hopefully we can have a shelter before the end of the year.”

Flemming said that the shelter was designed to be run by the current staff in place. He also said they would keep the current facility for quarantine purposes.

The city would like to have the bid open July 1st. They do not want vendors to rush because the city wants them to put a good package together.

– Newschannel 6