After a nearly four-month hiatus, construction on an animal shelter in Wildomar has resumed.

Construction began again after a meeting of the Southwest Communities Financing Authority on May 22 at Murrieta City Hall.

The five-member Financing Authority is comprised of officials from the cities of Temecula, Murrieta, Lake Elsinore and Canyon Lake and the County of Riverside.

During the meeting, which was closed to the public, the Financing Authority decided to proceed with construction, according to officials.

Construction on the site stopped on Feb. 5 after the contractor who was grading the property found a buried concrete container 32 feet deep and 12 feet wide. A date of 1907 appeared on the container, which may have been a cistern.

Uncapped wells and concrete pipes lined with asbestos were also uncovered.

Immediately after discovering the debris, the contractor took action to make the site safe, such as removing the cistern, capping the wells and disposing of the asbestos.

Contractors removed a total of 44 construction dumpsters full of debris.

Clearing the debris has added more than $700,000 to the projected cost of the shelter.

The additional cost was one of the issues the Financing Authority has been dealing with during the numerous closed-door meetings it has held over the last four months.

The Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District owns the 2.7-acre site on Mission Trail south of Corydon Road.

Before the debris increased the cost, the animal shelter’s construction was projected to amount to $11.5 million. The agencies the members of the Financing Authority represent will sell bonds to pay for the cost of the shelter, according to an official document.

The water district would lease the land to Animal Friends of the Valleys (AFV) for $1 per year until the bonds are paid off, at which time the deed of the land would go to the nonprofit group. Advertisement
Officials expect the bonds will be paid off in 30 years.

The amount the Financing Authority set aside in a contingency fund will pay for the cost of clearing the debris, according to Temecula Mayor Maryann Edwards, a member of the Financing Authority.

In addition to recommencing construction, the Financing Authority announced its decision to put the operation of the new facility up for a bid.

This decision surprised AFV officials, who have been closely involved with the project since its inception.

"We’ve put substantial amounts of time and money into this thing already," said AFV president Kristine Anderson.

AFV is a nonprofit organization that runs an animal shelter in Lake Elsinore.

The Wildomar shelter was conceived originally as a replacement for the current AFV shelter, which is comprised of portable structures, one of which burned down last year.

Nonetheless, an official memorandum of understanding between AFV and the Financing Authority makes no commitments regarding who will operate the new facility.

The memorandum states the Financing Authority will negotiate with AFV "in good faith" to operate the facility.

AFV officials thought they had finished the negotiations and were surprised by the decision to put the operation of the facility up for a bid.

"I thought most of this was in the past," said Anderson.

AFV will now have to bid alongside other animal control agencies for use of the facility.

On May 22, more than 40 people stood outside Murrieta City Hall to implore members of the Financing Authority to continue negotiations with AFV.

"No one from [AFV] was there, no one from the water district was there," said Pattie Roberts, an AFV volunteer who attended the gathering. "There was no dialogue, that was the point of panic… a negotiation is supposed to have all parties involved."

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1. sandra says :

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