Everman is considering construction of a new municipal animal shelter estimated at $2,000,000 after animal services staff reported a recent surge in dog intakes and stronger adoption activity, city staff told the Everman City Council during a presentation Tuesday.

Ray, a municipal animal services representative, told the council that intakes have climbed sharply, saying, "We took in 91 dogs, which the most we ever had prior to that was 67." He said the shelter hit a 93 percent live-release rate in April but had a low month in March with "72%" and that average length of stay for dogs is about "5 and, 5 and, 5, 6 days."

The uptick in intake coincided with expanded outreach and onsite adoption efforts led by animal-shelter staff. Mindy Henry, animal-shelter staff working on adoptions, has been running offsite events and designing the shelter's new mobile adoption center, which arrived this year. Henry said the mobile unit includes QR codes linking to shelter pages and that staff have been taking animals to offsite events where they have already increased adoptions.

The shelter has also run two free microchip clinics for Everman and Forest Hill residents, Ray said: "We got over 300 microchips donated, so that's a cost savings of about $2,100 on our end." Ray provided clinic counts of about 15 microchips implanted in Forest Hill and 12 in Everman for those two events. Staff asked residents to call ahead before visiting the shelter for microchipping to ensure availability.

Staffing and field work were highlighted as part of the response. Ray introduced Officer Josh Jones, who joined animal services from Weatherford and has been working on problem areas and field recoveries, and Sergeant Kilgore, who deployed a drone during a search for nursing puppies. Ray described field operations that included recovering a den of puppies and freeing a potbelly pig.

On the proposed new shelter, Ray said the city already controls the land and that the estimated construction cost for the facility is about $2,000,000. He said the city estimates the current shelter site and land have an asset value "somewhere to the tune of our ballpark is 300,000," and that rolling proceeds from a potential sale could reduce the financing gap to roughly $1,700,000. Ray described financing options discussed with neighboring cities and said, "a hundred and 50 to $200,000 a year is what those those payments would look like to to pay that back." He said a prior grant pursued for the project had fallen through and that staff are looking for other grant opportunities, corporate donations and the possibility of including the project in a 2027 bond package.

Ray characterized the project timeline as dependent on securing funding and said that, if funding is identified, the city could move quickly and expects roughly seven to nine months from funding to opening. He said the preferred delivery method would be a design-build contract selected through an RFP process.

Council members and the advisory board asked about current funding and next steps; Ray said there is not any funding specifically allocated to the project at this time and that decisions about partnering with other municipalities or funding mechanisms remain to be determined. No formal motion or vote on shelter construction or financing was taken during the meeting; the item remained a staff presentation and discussion.

For now, staff will continue adoption outreach with the mobile unit, pursue grants and partnerships, and share microchip-clinic information publicly. The council signaled that shelter funding discussions will factor into upcoming budget and bond planning sessions, with further decisions to follow as financing options are identified.