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New animal shelter coming to Bonham

By Scott Harvey

Bonham – After months of heavy discussion toward the construction of a new animal shelter the Bonham City Council formally approves the project.

Council members during a special meeting Monday morning gave the go ahead to proceed on the new facility, which will be funded through a donation from the late Linda Kirkpatrick.

"We have a proposal that we think will build the shelter for under $50,000 which is the amount of money donated to the city to build a shelter," City Manager Corby Alexander said.

The yearly cost in maintenance for the city is expected to by slightly more than their current facility, since the building will be a bit larger. Estimates put yearly fess at less than $18,000, compared to the current $11,000, as recently proposed by Police Chief Mike Bankston. The size will be about 1,100 square feet, or 40' by 26'.

Alexander says while the new shelter will be bigger, it will hold about the same number of animals, just more comfortably.

"We're pretty much at capacity where we are. Sometimes we have to double up on kennels; put two in a kennel, provided that neither animal is aggressive towards the other. So I don't expect [in the new facility] we'll house any more, we'll just do a better job of housing the ones we have."

The currently facility has about eight kennels and a dozen cages. The new shelter will have approximately ten kennels and a couple dozen cages.

There was no immediate timetable on when the construction would begin.

Serious talks about a citywide facility were initiated by council within the past month, after negotiations with Fannin County Commissioners, which had been in the works for years, fell through on a larger, countywide shelter. But commissioners, in a 3-2 vote back in late May, determined the cost would be too much.