Regional Animal Control Facility Could Open By October

Manchester, South Windsor and East Hartford will soon have a new location to house lost or abandoned animals, as a long-in-the-works regional animal control facility serving the three neighboring communities could open by early October, according to officials involved with the project. 

The project has gone through , including at one point to have been built and funded by the Connecticut Humane Society, but construction has finally begun on the building that will ultimately house the new regional animal control facility, while a targeted date for the completion of the construction is set for Oct. 8. 

Julian Freund, budget and research officer for the town of Manchester, gave a report to the Manchester Board of Directors last week updating the status of the project. Freund said repairs and renovations to a former fire house on Sullivan Avenue in South Windsor that will be used to house the new facility began two weeks ago, and that the contractor has indicated it plans to be finished with the repairs by Oct. 8. 

From there, Freund said, it could take another week or so to move furniture and supplies into the building before it is up and running to service all three towns. But Freund noted that the new facility will not have public hours to view or retrieve animals at the onset, because the three towns still need to coordinate schedules and the division of labor at the facility.

Freund said the facility, when fully renovated, will include 35 dog kennels, a room for cats and other small animals, reception rooms, public viewing rooms and a "large outdoor exercise and training area." 

The new facility will be located at 124 Sullivan Ave. in South Windsor. Renovations to the building are being financed through a $500,000 grant from the Capital Region Council of Governments (CRCOG) and do not come at any cost to the participating towns. In fact, the towns are likely to save money in the long run by collaborating on the facility, as it saves each of them the cost of having to renovate or construct new animal control facilities of their own. 

Manchester General Manager Scott Shanley told the board of directors last week that had Manchester elected to build its own animal control facility it would have cost the town an estimated $2.1 million. 

"We're saving, literally, millions of dollars by doing this," Shanley said. "It's a very long process, but we're almost there." 

At one time, the city of Hartford was also involved with the project, but has since dropped out.