NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WKBW) — Niagara Falls taxpayers are upset over a vote to spend $13,000 to turn the former DPW building in Hyde Park into an animal shelter.
The City of Niagara Falls Common Council voted 3 to 2 to use $13,000 toward the project.
The former DPW building sits in the middle of Hyde Park.
Those against the project say putting an animal shelter in a public park where families and children will be is unsafe.
The city ended its agreement with the Niagara SPCA last year and entered into a temporary agreement with the Pit Chic, paying that organization $20,000 a month to serve as a dog shelter for the city.
7 News spoke to Pit Chic owner Kelli Swagel in October 2023 about the shelter being over-capacity
Janine Gallo owns an animal shelter in Niagara County and says Niagara Falls asked her for a proposal.
“They did ask us for a proposal. My proposal was cheaper than the Pit Chic, it was in Niagara County where the money would be and we could hold up to 100 dogs, but we've never been given the opportunity," says Gallo.
Councilman Donta Myles was one of two votes against the project to bring the animal shelter to Hyde Park.
“Our city has been looking like a scene from The Walking Dead for a long time,” says Councilman Myles. “So with that being the case, how is it that we’re deciding to build an animal shelter...in our flagship of a park in the City of Niagara Falls and it’s on our dime? My thing is I feel we and the administration have done so much accommodating to a person that hasn’t given us a lot of answers to the questions that we have in regards to her service.”
Chairman Jim Perry tells 7 News reporter Yoselin Person the reason he voted to move forward with the project is to not end up in a situation they have been in previously.
“One of the reasons why we moved to an animal shelter in the Falls we are building ourselves is because we are not going to be subject to someone else running it and then having the same problems that we had with the SPCA,” Chairman Perry says. “Where they decide they don’t want municipal business anymore. So we’re going to hire someone to manage it, an outside firm, so we will own the shelter so we will hire a management company to run it.”
Former Councilman Vincent Cauley says his city needs to do a better job of listening to taxpayers.
“The same park that we’re going to put this animal shelter in, someone just sued the city for $15,000 dollars because they got hurt in this very same park," says Cauley. "So we should be worrying about fixing the park, fixing the roads.”
It hasn’t been determined when the project will begin.
