City kicks in $35K to support Safe Harbor Animal Coalition surgical suite

City kicks in $35K to support Safe Harbor Animal Coalition surgical suite
Gulf Shores voted at its Aug. 10 regular session to contribute $35,000 to the Safe Harbor Animal Coalition’s effort to fund a surgical suite at its new shelter on County Road 12 in Foley.
“We got a formal request from Safe Harbor Animal Coalition to help fund medical they need for an animal shelter where they’re going to do animal spay and neuter surgical and prep area in a building that they’ve had donated to them,” City Administrator Steve Griffin told the council.
“They have put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this building. They’ve had a construction crew rehab it but it’s basically an animal shelter clinic area that can be used and will serve the City of Gulf Shores, the Fort Morgan area, Orange Beach, Foley and a lot of the unincorporated areas of the county in between. The City of Foley has provided a $35,000 match back at their meeting in May, Orange Beach in June and they anticipate Baldwin County funding this at $35,000 also in October.”
The group needs about $133,000 to finish the surgery suite. Auburn University’s School of Veterinary Medicine to rotate their senior students at the SHAC facility to perform the surgeries under the supervision of Medical Director, Dr. Teresa Russell, DVM.
“We are working today to finish up the last of the building to get our certificate of occupancy and that should be next week,” SHAC’s Steve Solomon told the council “We’re ready to start ordering medical equipment and have the Auburn students come down and join us. Between the two facilities on the Baldwin Beach Express and our facility we can get this taken care of in a very cheap and effective way. It’s going to be university standards and that’s much higher than what we get at most of the vets. It’s an exciting thing and to see the cities help us with this it’s an amazing thing.”
Jim Brown Construction and Island Air were both instrumental in donating money and work to acquire and complete the SHAC’s new shelter. So far about $250,000 in cash and in-kind services have been donated and SHAC officials will need about $310,000 more to finish the shelter.