Oakdale city leaders approved a proposal to address overcrowding at the city’s animal shelter, approving a plan to expand the facility with modular buildings and related improvements after staff warned the current layout is contributing to disease spread, higher euthanasia rates and operational strain.
The proposal authorized the use of $100,000 already allocated in Facility Maintenance Fund for expansion of the Oakdale Animal Shelter Facility and for staff to complete needed improvements and building modifications.
Support Division Lt. Gary Vanderheiden presented the proposal, sharing that the current shelter setup does not allow staff to properly separate “healthy, sick, and quarantined animals,” which increases disease transmission and reduces the shelter’s ability to provide humane care. The report identified panleukopenia in cats and parvovirus in dogs among the concerns tied to overcrowding. The shelter serves the cities of Oakdale, Riverbank and Escalon.
The expansion plan calls for using land between the existing shelter and the Oakdale Wastewater Treatment Plant, where staff, working with Oakdale Public Works, prepared and graded a site capable of holding two additional structures. The plan includes relocating a city-owned mobile office trailer from South Fourth Avenue and East J Street and adding a classroom portable from Ceres Unified School District. The trailer is listed at about 480 square feet and is intended to house feline populations so healthy cats can be separated from sick or quarantined animals.
Vanderheiden said staff partnered with Public Works to prepare the site and that the Ceres school district was willing to provide a portable classroom for $1.
He also said the project is expected to “effectively more than double the shelter’s current usable building space,” with a total of about 2,400 square feet when the parks trailer is included.
Modular Solutions Inc. was quoted at $43,450 for dismantling, transporting and resetting the 48-by-40-foot classroom building, plus foundation-related work.
The staff report says the overall $100,000 allocation is intended to cover transportation and placement of modular buildings, interior renovations, kennel installation, flooring and sanitation improvements, security fencing and related infrastructure, and that the project is expected to be completed within the existing budget.
Oakdale Mayor Cherilyn Bairos was pleased with the forward motion of the project saying, “This has definitely been a long time coming” and Mayor Pro Tem Kayleigh Gilbert agreed, adding that shelter concerns have been a community priority for the past three years.
City Manager Jerry Ramar said the city still plans to eventually replace the shelter, but the approved project is meant to provide short-term relief now.
“What can we do to get immediate relief right now with the budget of 100,000,” Ramar said he asked staff. He added, “I didn’t anticipate that we would get this much room for this much money … it’s quite phenomenal.”
