City working toward new animal shelter

On Monday, Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs Jr. mentioned during the regular board meeting that the city is on track with building a new animal shelter.

“I think we’re on schedule and I have every intention to build a state of the art animal shelter,” Flaggs said. “We know where we’re gonna get the money from and the money is there.”                       

On Tuesday, we reached out Mayor Flaggs for clarification and asked that he expand on his statement. He said “We recently had Mike Bernard from Shelter Planners of America here. He spent the day meeting with Alderman Mayfield, Jeff Richardson and Shelter Director Kacie Lindsey. He is preparing some information for us that should be ready soon. I can’t budget for this until we know what it is going to cost.”          

City Attorney Nancy Thomas confirmed that the property donated to the city for the shelter on Highway 61 South by Ernest Thomas has been cleared through all the legal procedures and now belongs to the city. Thomas deferred all additional questions on the matter to the Mayor or North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield, who oversees Public Works. The animal shelter and animal control fall under the purview of public works.

When reached for comment Wednesday morning, Mayfield said “it’s no secret that I wanted a more centralized location. We looked at numerous locations that for various reasons didn’t work out. However we are moving forward and covering all our bases. I expect us to be able to make some decisions soon.”                       

Preliminary sketch of the new Vicksburg Animal Shelter.

Animal advocate Marilyn Terry was allowed to sit in on the meetings and said she is excited to see what the Shelter Planners come back with. Shelter Planners of America has been involved in the development and construction planning of over 700 Animal Centers and Shelters across the country. They were hired at a cost of $19,250 to design a 6,000 square foot shelter inside the property at 4845 US 61 South, just North of the Mid South Lumber Building. They will also include costs of construction of a building from the ground up, as a point of comparison.

The initial estimates are expected to be in the city’s hands within the next 3 weeks. Flaggs stood firm in his statement that an animal shelter was a priority. He added that the rumors that the administration had moved money allocated to shelter to other projects were unfounded.

Flaggs closed by saying “The residents have let me know that they want a new shelter and I am committed to giving them a facility that we can all be proud of and something that will last for many years.”

Keith Phillips contributed to this story.