Dog Pound Could Be Park's Best Friend
By Shawn Clubb/ Suburban Journals

March 13, 2007 – Maggie Collida wanted more from her neighborhood park, but was never completely for or against development of an animal shelter there.

The Animal House Fund is now clear to build its animal control facility in Ellendale-Arsenal Park and also plans to improve the park with Collida's help.

"Our park is in desperate need of help and we just don't have the funds. We had started looking at our park just before the Animal House came along," Collida said. "We have to go out and develop some partnerships; this one was practically dropped in our lap."

Collida was a member of the Ellendale Neighborhood Park Development Committee before the people behind the Animal House Fund decided they wanted to build in the park. She and the other three members of the committee have now been asked to choose two people to help decide what improvements the park will see because of the fund's efforts.

The committee was charged with developing ideas to improve the park, decrease vandalism and increase use, John Palmer, another park committee member, said.

The Animal House Fund plans to privately fund construction of the animal control center in the park and later turn it over to the city. It has agreed to improve the park with a walking path and upgrades to the ball fields and other features there.

Palmer said the neighbors who work on the new committee for the Animal House Fund will be able to guide the decisions about what improvements are made.

Katherine McGowan, executive director of the Animal House Fund, said her group has said from the start that it wanted representatives from the neighborhood to aid in the design portion of the project.

"It's their park. They will be using the park recreationally and it's their community. We wanted them to feel comfortable that the design concept would compliment their expectations for the park," McGowan said.

Palmer said the design has to account for what is in the best interests of both the Animal House and the neighborhood. He said placement of park features has to make sense and the committee would have to decide how to best use funds.

Some opposition to the shelter remains, but backers of the Animal House Fund have addressed some of those concerns, Palmer said.

"There will be certain points that will be hard to step around, so we're going to have to compromise," Palmer said.

Collida said the most recent meeting with the Animal House Fund people was positive and neighborhood residents feel they are in charge.

"We felt like we weren't being led down any particular path; that nothing was going to happen that we didn't know about," Collida said. "We understand we have to give to get. We just want to make sure we get everything we can for the benefit of the park."

Alderman Bill Waterhouse, D-24th ward, said legislation has already been approved to allow the Animal House to be built in the neighborhood park. The group now needs to raise 75 percent of the funds needed before it will start construction. The project is estimated to cost $4 million.

McGowan said little fundraising has been done. She said the group first needed to secure the site. HOK, the architectural design firm that has volunteered its services, will now design the building. She said fundraising would be done after a design could be shown to the public.

McGowan estimated the group could break ground on the project within the next year and a half.

However, a foundation already has stepped forward to fund improvements to the park. McGowan said the Mark Munsell Memorial Foundation, wants to form a partnership with the Animal House Fund.

Collida said the neighborhood's partnership with the Animal House Fund is just one way in which it seeks to improve and maintain the park. She said the neighborhood committee would seek other partners for the effort.

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