Corraleños and their four-legged friends will soon have a new and improved Animal Services building.
Since the village received its first quote for the kennel there have been delays with the builder, it was red-tagged. Despite these setbacks, the village is ready to open its doors and provide animal services in its new Animal Services building costing just over $267,000.
As reported by the Corrales Comment, village officials agreed to purchase the portable building from Horizon Structures LLC, the Pennsylvania-based builder, in 2022 for $85,000. The village budgeted $180,000 to prepare the site and the necessary plumbing and electrical work to get the shelter operational.
According to Village Clerk Melanie Romero, the kennel’s funding primarily came from the Dennis Friends Foundation, which contributed $242,047, alongside an additional $25,000 allocated by Sandoval County Commissioner Katherine Bruch from appropriation funds.
The Horizon prefabricated kennel cost $86,912, while Albuquerque-based Facility Build handled the site work for $180,134.20.
Delays began to pile up soon after work began on the structure in June 2023. The concrete foundation was laid when the building was delivered at the end of August and Facility Build got started on the building’s plumbing and heating.
A month into the installation process, a state building inspector red-tagged the building due to its failure to meet the state building codes necessary for manufactured housing.
The village had expected Horizon to deliver and install a structure that would comply with state regulations, similar to an identical structure purchased by Sandoval County in 2021.
In an email to the Comment, Romero said, “The final determination was that Horizon Structures sent the Village a building that never received any final inspections and thus did not meet any minimum standards for a building.â€
She explained that new permits were required, and Facility Build needed architectural plans from Horizon for submission to the Construction Industries Division. Horizon typically only provided “shop plans,” so obtaining detailed architectural plans took time. Facility Build requested the plans from Horizon on October 4 and the drawings were finally sent on December 20.
Work resumed on the kennel in March and it passed inspections on April 8.
Romero said that the new building has four dog kennels, designed for animals to be under Corrales Animal Services’ care for 3 to 5 days. If their owners don’t reclaim them, they’ll be transferred to Animal Humane. Once the county establishes its animal center, the Village will explore the potential for an agreement with Sandoval County to relocate animals there.
The grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony are in the works and will be announced.
I wish the Village would have done some due diligence and realized that there is a world-renowned leader in veterinary architecture/animal care facilities-design/build firm right here in Albuquerque.