No-Kill Animal Shelter to Give Facility Over to Westchester Town

Editor’s Note: Patch is re-running this story in case you missed it the first time around.

The Pets Alive Westchester board plans to give its former animal sanctuary property, located 100 Warehouse Road South in Elmsford, back to the Town of Greenburgh for the purpose of the town working with another rescue group to create a new no-kill animal shelter, Pets Alive officials announced.

The facility closed in September due to major structural issues with the building caused by settlement, declining revenue and increasing costs. All animals that remained at the time of closure – over 60 cats and dogs - were transferred to the Pets Alive, Inc. no kill animal sanctuary in Middletown.

Negotiations between the town and Pets Alive were on and off for the past couple of months. Pets Alive put out a Request for Proposal to other animal rescue groups for the building and subsequently received several replies, according to officials.

One group in particular, which Pets Alive did not name, came close to taking over the building for a new no-kill shelter, but ultimately it had to back out due to cost. The potential cost to renovate the facility is estimated to exceed $1 million.

“Given this decision, we have notified the Town of Greenburgh Supervisor Paul Feiner, Town Attorney Timothy Lewis, and Town Board of Directors that we want to turn the property over to the Town,” said Dr. Joseph D’Abbraccio, Acting President and Chairman of the Board, in a statemewnt. “The Town knows its constituency and could more easily work with another animal rescue organization to get the appropriate building permits and meet the other needs to restart operations as an animal shelter.”

In recent weeks, local community members have communicated with both the Town of Greenburgh administration and Pets Alive Westchester board members expressing an interest in having the property revert back to the Town so that the Town can work with another animal rescue organization to reopen the shelter, according to Pets Alive.

Last month, Town of Greenburgh Building Inspector John Lucido said on a local radio show that while parts of the building need costly, major repairs, another animal rescue organization could use part of the building under the guidance of a professional engineer. This would include use of the dog kennels.

“Lucido mentioned that even though the kennels could be occupied, the front part of the building by the loading dock had bad structural damage,” Pets Alive officials said. “Therefore, the entire front portion of the building – the lobby, the rooms where the cats were housed, and the upstairs quarters - per the engineer on record, should be walled-off and all utilities would need to be relocated to a safe part of the facility and away from the loading dock area. If another shelter were to reoccupy the part of the building deemed safe, it would require a building permit to install a trailer or other temporary structure to use as temporary office space for animal adoptions while fundraising could take place to repair the building.”

Before the building can be turned over to the town, a legal agreement still needs to be drafted, and then Pets Alive Westchester would apply to the New York State Attorney General’s office to get approval to dispose of the property.

For more information about the Elmsford property, visit: www.petsalive.com/2015Change/

Photo credit: Contributed