DIDSBURY - The Wild Rose Humane Society is one step closer to building an animal shelter in Didsbury after council approved a loan for the group at the recent regularly scheduled council meeting.
The loan will be for $50,000 payable over 10 years at three per cent interest.
Dean Orlando, president of the group, gave a presentation at council at the Sept. 13 meeting saying the society had found a suitable location and was just looking into funding.
He asked the town for either a loan or to take over the mortgage of the building they are looking at.
The animal shelter would provide services for adoption and fostering as well as sheltering for lost animals.
The shelter would provide a service not only for Didsbury but also the surrounding area such as Sundre, Olds, Carstairs, Innisfail and Airdrie.
“It's a very low risk to the Town of Didsbury,” Christofer Atchison, manager of legislative and development services, told council. “It's a small amount of money for us but a large amount of money for them to get the operation done.”
Derek Sutherland, manager of protective services, told council having the animal shelter would fill a need in town for the kennelling of stray animals. “One of the things we consistently run into is that we have no place to put these animals,” said Sutherland.
Orlando told the Gazette that the society is very happy and pleased with the loan received from the town.
“We are very thankful to the Town of Didsbury, town council and staff and we look forward to working with the town,” Orlando said.
The society is working hard on obtaining other funding, he said.
There is no word yet on when the shelter would open.
