Animal care advocates have been pressing for more than a decade for a shelter in Jefferson County. On July 2, the Jefferson County Commission took a big step toward advancing the project, voting unanimously to put a mill levy for a Jefferson County animal shelter on the June 2020 ballot.
The new shelter, built to accommodate up to 30 dogs and 30 cats, will be located on 2.6 acres of land at 23 Muskrat Lane, south of Boulder’s wastewater treatment plant, according to Cheryl Haasakker of the Animal Shelter and Care Committee, which would operate the facility. She said the Committee has reached a 99-year, $1 lease agreement for the property with the city.
Haasakker said that the group hopes to have the shelter up and running by the end of 2021.
The proposed levy would be for nine mills ($270,000 per year) and would be effective in perpetuity. A mill levy is a tax that is applied to the assessed value of a property. One mill is one dollar per $1,000 dollars of assessed value, which is used to fund designated area services.
If passed, the proposed levy would add $6.12 to the annual taxes of the owner of a $50,000 home, $12.15 to the annual taxes of a $100,000 home and $24.30 to the annual taxes of a $200,000 home, according to Haasakker. Funds would pass through a contract with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
Haasakker said the shelter’s operating costs will total about $354,000 per year. The funds from the levy, if passed, would go toward building the shelter, paying shelter employees and caring for animals. The remaining $84,000 needed annually for the shelter would come from grants, fundraisers, impound and adoption fees and donations and more. The mill levy wouldn’t cover outright the cost of constructing the shelter, Haasakker said. Rather, the mill levy would account for the cost of financing the construction. She said they are still crunching numbers, but they estimate building the facility would cost about $1 million. The shelter team hopes to defray part of that amount through grants, fundraising and donations, she said.
“It is definitely going to be a huge mountain to climb and undertaking to raise the funds to build the shelter,” Haasakker said, noting that the mill levy’s passage would open doors for various funding options.
Voter approval would cap a long journey for the Animal Shelter and Care Committee. Since 2008, Haasakker and other volunteers, have worked to build a shelter in Jefferson County by attending commission board meetings, speaking with lawyers, researching, preparing documents and writing up and then adjusting proposals and presentations.
Haasakker wrote in a recent statement that the group is “very hopeful, enthusiastic and happy” that the city will approve the long-term land lease and that county voters will approve the mill levy. “We are so lucky to be in a community where the Commission board, individuals and organizations are so supportive of us,” she said in a recent interview.
With the County lease and approval of the mill levy ballot measure now done, “we got over two hurdles, and now we have 10 more to go,” Committee member Vickie Cordeiro said in a recent interview.
Jefferson County has had a problem with feral cats and stray dogs for years. Historically, according to Haassakker and others, some residents have simply dropped unwanted animals off at locations including the Montana City store, Town Pump and solid waste sites. Others have taken found animals or pets they can no longer care for to the Lewis and Clark Humane Society in Helena, the Beaverhead County Animal Shelter in Dillon or animal shelter in Belgrade and Butte/Silver Bow.
The Lewis and Clark Humane Society, the closest shelter to Jefferson County, used to charge Jefferson County $59 every time a county animal was surrendered there. But it recently increased the charge to $125. The 47 animals left there each year, on average, poses an annual expense to the county of about $5,900 a year.
Though the Animal Shelter and Care Committee has recently started a temporary animal foster home network in Boulder by working with the Boulder Police Department, there has not been an official animal control service in Jefferson County.
The Animal Shelter and Care Committee has been a nonprofit since 2009. It was founded in 2007 by a group of Boulder residents that included Haasakker, Jefferson County Prevention Specialist Barb Reiter, former resident Charlene Hall, and other Boulder residents. When Hall moved out of state in 2011, Haasakker took it over with Cordeiro.
The Committee provides two “low-cost” spay and neuter clinics and two “low-cost” shot clinics for Jefferson County residents each year, usually out of the south gym of Jefferson High School. The new shelter would be big enough to host the clinics.
Haasakker’s group plans to build support for the levy by holding open meetings, campaigning and attending county events such as Whitehall Frontier Days, the Jefferson County Fair and Rodeo, the Chamber Car Show and summer music festivals.
