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The Coffee County Health, Welfare and Recreation Committee has given St. John Engineering of Manchester the go-ahead to work on an updated design for a new Coffee County Animal Control facility.

During its Wednesday, Jan 24 meeting, members of the committee viewed two options that had been previously designed by St. John Engineering for a proposed Animal Control facility, before deciding to create a third design option, incorporating exactly what the county would like to see in its new facility.

Committee member Jimmy Hollandsworth asked former Coffee County Mayor Gary Cordell to give the committee a summary of his knowledge of the animal control project, and the work that went on the last several years.

“Two or two and a half years ago, I talked with Robert Gilliam about a blueprint,” Cordell said. “(Scot St. John) has a copy of that there, for a shelter we were looking at the time. I think he also has one for the Tullahoma site as well.”

St. John said St. John Engineering was approached to provide the county with a general plan for a new Animal Control facility.

“At the time, Robert Gillam had come to me and said, Scott try and lay out about 30 stalls…and we just took a shot at it and kind of outlined some of the support rooms that needed to be there,” St. John said.

The proposals are for a 3,000 square ft. facility featuring additional exterior dog runs that are covered.

St. John said at the time, minimal input was received from the county regarding the proposed blueprints for the project.

“We didn’t really get comments back to make revisions,” he said. “I think it was just to get something out there to start a discussion.”

During the meeting, Cordell, who served as Coffee County Mayor between 2014 and 2022, said it is not mandatory for a county in the state of Tennessee to have an Animal Control facility.

“A lot of counties don’t know that and a lot of counties don’t have that,” Cordell said. “The primary function or role of animal control is for rabies control and also if you have vicious dogs to pick up..that is part of the primary purpose…”

Cordell said the purpose of county Animal Control seems to have changed over time.

“Over the years a lot of the counties kind of shifted over time to becoming more of a rescue entity rather than animal control,” Cordell said. “There is a fine line there with that.”

Last July, The Coffee County Commission voted to allocate $500,000 of ARP COVID-19 relief funds towards the construction of a new animal shelter. While those funds have been set aside, construction must begin within 18 months of the vote if those funds are to be utilized. If it is not used by that time, the funding will revert back to the unassigned capital project funds.

Craig Boyd, Animal Control director, said it is estimated the cost of a new Animal Control facility will be $1.5 million. In addition to the $500,000 in ARP funds, an anonymous donor has agreed to match $500,000 in donations if that amount can be raised by the county through donations. A steering committee has handling the fundraising efforts for the county.

Committee member Tim Morris said the new building will have to last the county for the next 30-40 years.

“One way or another you are going to pay,” he said. “If you do it good and build a good building the maintenance side of it is going to be low and if we do it cheap the maintenance of the building is going to be high.”

“We are learning that at the jail right now too,” Morris added. “We want to be cost efficient, but now we are paying for it. That is something I have learned in that jail and it is a $22 million building.”

Boyd said one design element he would like to see in the new facility are a main entrance and secondary side entrance for people to bring animals into the building.

“That is going to cut down on diseases and stuff like that being tracked through the entire place,” he said. “You bring them in one side then that side of the building is for stays and dogs that are not ready for adoption yet.”

Boyd said he would also like to see a separate quarantine area in the new facility.

“We have bite dogs constantly and if we are going to have volunteers in the building that needs to be separate from the rest of these dogs and cut off from everything else,” he said. “It is a safety thing also, with volunteers running around you need to have a place where you can say, hey do not go in this area.”