Construction on a long-overdue new animal shelter is well underway in Frankfort, KY. It replaces a 53 year-old facility in a flood plain.

The Franklin County Humane Society (FCHS) www.fchsanimals.org is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit and contract animal welfare agency for Frankfort and Franklin County KY. It is an open admission animal shelter with a 94% live outcome success rate despite the obstacle of operating in an aging, flood prone facility.

FCHS has raised $4 million privately for the new shelter and $1 million each from the City of Frankfort and Franklin County Fiscal Court.

The new facility is being constructed on City of Frankfort property under a long term, no cost, lease agreement.

At issue is the cost of the access road, called Companion Place, which is owned by the city and leads not only to the new shelter site, but also to a city sewer pump station, more city property behind the new shelter site, and the Vaughn Branch Nature Preserve.

FCHS has always maintained it should not be responsible to construct and pay for a public, city street. However, in order to receive a building permit for the new shelter, the city insisted FCHS design the road to city specifications, raising the cost from $180,000 to $350,000.

FCHS has been forced to construct and pay for Companion Place in order to build the new shelter facility. In addition, problems with the city owned site itself have added another $300,000 to the construction contract expense.

Total infrastructure costs including the access road are now over $1 million. Unless there is change the city's prior commitment will go entirely to infrastructure for property it owns leaving nothing for the facility itself!

We, the undersigned, support City of Frankfort funding of $300,000 for Companion Place, and we request that:

-Open discussion of the access road issue be included in the next Board of Commissioners work session on August 8, 2022.

-Discussion of Companion Place funding be included in any discussion of budget amendments.