The Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter (YVAS) sent the city a bid on Friday to continue providing animal services, but not in the contaminated building on Monad Road.
“Still provides services, but not the lease of that building,” said Triniti Halverson, YVAS executive director.
Billings City Administrator Chris Kukulski says he would like the shelter to reconsider that decision.
“We've reached a point where that dialogue needs to happen,” Kukulski said. “Face to face, so that we can work through, what does the future look like for YVAS?"
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Part of the immediate future is in the warehouse at the Lionheart Cannabis on Frontage Road, the temporary home for the shelter.
“For that short term, we just want to be here, have our doors open, provide that service,” Halverson said. “Provide a safe place for animal control officers to drop off lost homeless animals, just as we've done for 18 years.”
On Friday, the city administrator opened the doors of the former shelter building to media, showing the incinerator room where drugs were burned more than six weeks ago.
That burn on Sept. 10 sent drug-filled smoke into the building, forcing the evacuation of 14 employees and all animals.
“This is where that one methamphetamine hit was in this room,” Kukulski said about one of the tests. “And so that's why (Montana Department of Environmental Quality), this is the room, this is the space that needed to be cleaned.”
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The cleaning company has been here since the incident, cleaning up the building, including the air.
“We're hopeful we may receive that next week and get that certificate from DEQ in early November,” Kukulski said about when the build will be deemed clean.
Kukulski says the building would then be ready to use, but likely not by the shelter.
“We don't feel comfortable operating out of the facility on Monad,” Halverson said. “We do want to maintain that operational relationship with the city of Billings as far as caring for the animals in our community. So we're looking at those separately right now.”
Still, possibilities and options remain open between the city and Yellowstone Valley.
“I obviously have very high hopes that the relationship can be mended because it's better for our community and better for our animals if we're able to work together in the end,” said Halverson.
“We've had a long-term working relationship with Yellowstone Valley animal shelter, and we hope to figure out how to repair that and continue working forward,” said Kukulski.
Related:
Billings animal shelter faces weeks of cleanup, uncertainty after meth smoke contamination
Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter searching for homes for strays following meth malfunction
Billings animal shelter director refuses to return to shelter until incinerator is shut down
