Animal shelter main topic at Coffee with the Mayor

City of Nevada Mayor George Knox met with a small group of civic and business leaders at Precision Coffee early Thursday morning for the monthly Coffee with the Mayor.

Among those in attendance were Jason Hedges, Kendal Vickers, Steve Russ, Scott and Charlotte Buerge, Sheree Gayman, Councilman Lyndon Eberhard and others.

The opening topic was a location for the city's animal shelter which has drawn criticism from residents or business areas near every proposed location. Knox said he had learned building street access to the location proposed by Monte Curtis — which Curtis offered to gift to the City — would be extremely costly. He explained that Eberhard had been working on the problem and had identified three other properties that were possible locations, one being behind the old Vinyards building.

Knox said he is against "kill shelters" preferring abandoned or surrendered animals to be adopted to willing families.

The conversation turned to the abruptness with which the public was confronted with the issue of a new animal shelter.

Knox said the Council did not know of the plans for a new animal shelter until the Marmaduke Park location was proposed at a recent council meeting and that he is working with Interim City Manager Mark Mitchell to ensure better communication in the future. He explained the animal shelter project had "been left on the desk" when former city manager JD Kehrman resigned.

The other major topic of discussion was abandoned, burned, or sub-standard buildings and what could be done about them.

The City faces several problems when addressing this issue - individual property rights, the cost of acquiring and demolishing dangerous or derelict buildings, and where to relocate the families displaced by this process.

Vickers advocated beginning with abandoned or burned buildings, of which there are numerous in Nevada.

The suggestion was made to approach the issue of properties in disrepair or are unsightly but not necessarily violating a current city ordinance by working with the property owners, not necessarily the tenants as 60 percent of properties in Nevada are rentals.

When it comes to addressing properties that are currently occupied but that are substandard, there are several problems including tenants with large utility bill balances or that cannot afford the reconnect fees, tenants with mental health issues, and the economic reality that if property owners invest money into a property to bring it to a certain standard, the rent for that property will likely have to be raised to cover those improvements.

Also discussed were the building inspector and code enforcement.

The next Coffee with the Mayor will be March 26 at 5:30 p.m.