NORTHAMPTON — Abused or lost animals of all kinds may soon have a new place to sleep as Northampton plans to build an animal control kennel after years of depending on other groups to house such critters.

The kennel is slated to cost $395,000, and funds have already been approved by the city’s Capital Planning Committee, Police Chief Jody Kasper said. She said the city is now considering possible sites for the shelter.

“Hopefully, it will come in less, but that’s sort of the working budget,” Mayor David Narkewicz said. “We don’t have a specific site located — we’re trying to look as a first priority at sites that are publicly owned.”

State law requires towns to have a designated animal control officer, Kasper said in a statement, and larger communities often have a facility to house animals that are stray, lost, abused or part of a police investigation. Kasper said the new kennel will house all kinds of animals, including dogs, cats and birds.

Dogs found from about 8 or 9 a.m. to 4 or 5 p.m. weekdays are currently taken by Animal Control Officer Shayla Howe to Amherst for overnight stays at the shelter there. This arrangement started in 2015 after a longtime contractor with a private shelter, Nancy Graham, retired.

“That’s not a very common model,” Mayor David Narkewicz said of the former arrangement with Graham. “When Nancy decided to retire, we had to transition into a more traditional model.”

Narkewicz said shuttling the dogs to Amherst was only ever meant to be a short-term solution.

“The long-term plan was to look at creating a permanent structure here in Northampton,” he said.

Narkewicz said he wanted to make clear that the planned facility will not be one for adoption — it will be strictly a municipal building and not for public use. Such facilities have very specific requirements outlined by the state, he said, including those regarding floor drains, quarantine areas, outdoor runs and hookups for a washer and dryer.

“There weren’t really any existing facilities like that here in Northampton,” he said of the decision to build. “There’s very specific guidelines to meet the inspection requirements for one of these animal control kennels.”

Each dog’s stay in Amherst costs $15 per night. There were 508 overnight stays for dogs from July 2015 to July 2016, according to Kasper’s statement, adding up to $7,620 in payments to the Amherst shelter, on top of the $1,400 base contract payment.

Dogs found outside Howe’s work hours are taken by police officers to the Northampton police station, where they stay in a kennel inside the station overnight. Officers on duty have to take the dog outside during the night.

“It’s a service we provide right now, but it’s not in officers’ job descriptions,” Howe said. The kennel in Northampton would not require overnight staff, Kasper said. It would allow animals to take care of themselves.

Kasper said having a shelter in Northampton will also save Howe time. Driving to Amherst sometimes two or three times a day can take up hours of Howe’s shifts, even though her duties include responsibilities beyond transporting dogs.

“When she’s over there, she can’t do her job here,” Kasper said.

The contract with Amherst could also be canceled at any time for any reason given 30 days notice, according to Kasper’s statement, making a Northampton shelter more sustainable.

Cats are currently taken to veterinarians overnight. Such visits are supposed to cost $30 per night, Kasper stated, but some veterinarians reduce the price and the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals sometimes covers the cost as well.

Northampton recorded 456 cat overnight stays from July 2015 to July 2016.

Kasper said the kennel would also provide storage space for blankets, food and other items now stored at the police station.

Narkewicz included the cost for the project among 113 projects in his five-year, $83.4 million capital improvement plan he unveiled in March. The $395,000 for the kennel was included in the $3,388,492 City Council voted to appropriate in April for capital projects in the coming fiscal year.

“It’s part of our capital budget — money accumulated over time for the purpose of capital project,” he said.

Amanda Drane can be contacted at adrane@gazettenet.com. Nyssa Kruse can be contacted nyssa.kruse@gmail.com.

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