Lindon getting a pet project

LINDON — Running a business is hard work. Starting a business is even harder. Trying to get one up and running in the next few weeks?

Welcome to Bob Conner's world.

As chairman of North Utah Valley Animal Services Special Service District, Conner's title is as long as his to-do list for the new animal shelter in Lindon. And with a grand opening tentatively planned for mid-November, Conner has his hands full.

He just completed interviews for a shelter manager and wants to hire one more full-time employee and four more part-time workers. He's also needs to furnish the building, buy all the chemicals, leashes, cages and miscellany associated with an animal-control agency.

There's 75 locks to be set up and double-keyed, an insurance policy to be finalized, phone systems to hook up, network and computer systems installed and programmed and oodles of other odds and ends, he said.

The new animal shelter, which will replace the old shelter in Orem, will serve the north end of Utah County. "You could put our old shelter in one teeny corner (of the new shelter)," Conner said of the new facility at 193 N. 2000 West in Lindon.

The Lindon shelter has viewing rooms, large kennels and exotic animal rooms, as well as "get acquainted rooms" where people can play with animals to see if they want to adopt them. There's also a clinic, which allows for in-house treatment rather than having to transport the animals elsewhere.

To share the costs, each city in north Utah Valley will pay $40 for each animal that is brought in from that city, helping with a yearly operating cost of almost $385,000, including personnel.

Utah County purchased the $2.3 million site for the new shelter and will lease it for $1 a year for 30 years. The renewable lease is an agreement with the shelter's board of directors, which will be the governing body responsible for day-to-day operations.

A mirror image of the soon-to-be-completed shelter is in Spanish Fork, the south county shelter that deals with all cities south of Orem.

The addition of the north shelter will help relieve some of the pressure and allow residents from Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs to take their animals to Lindon instead of Spanish Fork, said Kim Arenz, an animal attendant who takes care of cats.

The southern shelter gets around 10 dogs and 10 cats each day but can also handle large animals like sheep, horses and cows. The old Orem shelter couldn't handle such animals.

"We get all their goats," she said. "We had 14 at one time. But we found homes for all of them."

Many of the animals are strays that eventually are adopted, but some are just pets that have wandered away from home.