By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
Lincoln County plans to announce Wednesday that it is purchasing property in the Waldport Industrial Park to house its new animal shelter.
The county has struggled to find a place to locate a new shelter after its longtime facility in Newport was forced to close in 2019 because of toxic levels of mold.
The search for a new site had been hampered at times because of the lack of suitably zoned, located or appropriate land for a facility that cares for 1,100 animals a year.
The county has operated its animal control services out of temporary quarters on Northeast Harney Street in Newport near the county Commons after backing off plans last year to locate the shelter on five acres at the Newport Municipal Airport.
The county is purchasing the property from the owners of the Dahl Disposal Co. and is partitioning land from the company’s Ideal Storage property on Southwest Dahl Avenue. The Ideal Storage property is 8.2 acres, according to county records.
The amount of land being purchased and price has not yet been announced.
The county’s decision to purchase the property is well known in the animal community. A property search group even showed major supporters the site.
County officials said Thursday they would hold a public announcement at 2 p.m. Wednesday to talk about the selection and assessment process, the purchase and the next steps in designing and building the shelter.
A preliminary plan developed for the Newport airport site called for an 8,500-square-foot facility costing more than $5 million.
Animal control and the shelter falls under the sheriff’s department, which oversees animal control deputies, shelter staff and and more than 100 volunteers. On its website, the shelter said it accepts all sick, injured and abandoned animals and dogs running at large and finds homes for owners who surrender their pets.
“Thousands of other animals receive help through licensing, the food bank program, lost and found efforts, humane education, and disaster planning and response,” according to the shelter’s website.
The county had won hard-fought approval from the Newport Planning Commission and an appeal to the Newport City Council in 2022 to locate the shelter at the airport. But commissioners voted last April to pause the process because of opposition by Friends of Lincoln County Animals and the Central Oregon Coast Humane Society, which said the site was too noisy for animals and potentially unsafe.
“I think the most important thing is having public support behind this project,” Sheriff Curtis Landers said last April when the decision was made to move away from the airport location.
The location in south Lincoln County is expected to raise some concerns in the Lincoln City/Neotsu/Otis areas because of the distance – 45 miles – to the new shelter.
The shelter’s location in Waldport will also benefit from an infrastructure bill moving through the 2023 Oregon Legislature. House Bill 3416 would allocate $2.2 million in state economic development funds to run a sewer main from the intersection of Range and Crestline drives nearly a mile south to the Waldport Industrial Park.
The sewer line would open the 160-acre industrial park to development – and provide service to the new animal shelter.
The legislation is co-sponsored by Rep. David Gomberg, D-Otis, targets 13 projects in 11 rural counties — including $1.5 million to the city of Depoe Bay to complete its dock improvement project. The legislation is now before the Joint Ways and Means Committee.
- Quinton Smith is the editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com
Everyone, please please please spay and neuter your pets.
This new plan doesn’t seem very centrally accessible. It seems like the preliminary plan at the airport was approving an excessive amount of money, $5 million, for a building. The sheriff says, “I think the most important thing is having public support behind this project.” It’s probably important to encourage restraint if public approval is important. Why couldn’t the mold situation at the old Animal Shelter site be cleaned up? Why can’t part of the Fairgrounds be used? I think those questions would be important for the public to hear answers to before plans are finalized. Not everyone can get to these meetings but many community members can read online and in the newspaper and leave comments and suggestions.