Animal Control outlines emergency pet-sheltering plan, identifies fairgrounds MOA and alternate sites

Animal Control staff presented the borough’s domestic pet emergency-sheltering plan and walked commissioners through the sheltering model, site criteria, logistics and volunteer coordination at the May 5 meeting.

Sandra Hill said the training and plan draw on past wildfire and flood responses (Boundary Fire 2004, Stewart Creek 2013, Shovel Creek 2019) and on recent staff training days. She described two basic shelter models: a temporary shelter where shelter staff provide daily care and a co-located shelter where owners provide care in the same facility. “One of the things that we go over that's critical is the chain of command,” Hill said, stressing that public information and media requests must go through a public information officer and the borough emergency operations.

Staff outlined site-selection criteria—central location, water, power, lighting, restrooms, waste disposal, temperature control and accessibility—and listed candidate sites the borough has considered, including the fairgrounds, schools, warehouses, convention centers and the recently vacated transportation building. Hill said the fairgrounds provided a “fairly decently put together” draft SOP (staff later clarified she meant an MOA or MOU) and that the borough plans to formalize a memorandum of understanding to secure access; she also said the transportation building is a leading alternate because it has empty space and could accommodate crates and supplies quickly.

Commissioners pressed staff for a pre‑vetted list of possible facilities and asked whether those buildings have been checked for square footage, drainage, power and winter resiliency. Hill said the staff would compile and share a list of candidate buildings and noted that the borough maintains kennels and supplies that could be deployed immediately. She also said staff use a flexible staging approach—pods, visual barriers and veterinary areas—depending on animal type, season and public-health needs and that they coordinate with community platforms such as the FNSB “Neighbors Helping Neighbors” Facebook group to match local offers of space and foster capacity.

Staff described personal-protection, waste-disposal and decontamination needs for sheltering and said they plan to work with CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) on volunteer training. Commissioner Bethune offered to be on a call list for volunteer deployment; staff said they will coordinate a CERT training date and advertise volunteer opportunities via GivePulse when the program is launched.

No formal action was taken. Commissioners asked staff to provide a written list of vetted contingency facilities and to follow up on the fairgrounds MOA for future meetings.