South Ward Alderman Alex Monsour, Jr. held a press conference Thursday to present the conceptual design for the new City of Vicksburg Animal Shelter.  

The design will be discussed during the Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting Friday for a vote. 

During Monsour’s press conference, Community Development Director Jeff Richardson explained how the shelter, which was designed by Shelter Planners of America, would be laid out and how the facility would function for the animals. 

With just under 4,700 heated and cooled square feet, Richardson said, the shelter will include an intake and grooming area, a get-acquainted room, a chemical room and a room for food storage. 

“There will be a room for pet adoptions, stray cats and medical isolation room for cats — three different rooms,” he said. 

The animal shelter will also have a puppy and small breed dog room, a medical quarantine room for dogs, a large area for the caught/adoptable dogs and exterior space for the dogs to get exercise. 

“This shelter is an adequate, safe, humane, spacious location and a whole lot better than what we have in the city of Vicksburg right now,” Monsour said, adding the design also allows for expansion. 

In addition to Shelter Planners of America designing the facility, they also prepared a budget that estimated a high and low end for material cost, with $993,967 for the low end and $1,421,002 for the high end. 

The shelter will be located at 4845 U.S. Highway 61 South. This property and the existing building that will be used for the shelter was donated by the Ernest Thomas family for the purpose of housing the city’s animal shelter. 

After nearly two decades of trying to find an adequate location and space for the shelter, Monsour said, “We have taken care of it (the animal shelter) now. I can’t help what happened 16 years ago, but I can help what happened in this administration. So we are where we are today and everybody’s concerns were addressed and I don’t see a downside to the shelter, so that is why I will recommend we move forward to put this on the agenda and vote on it.”

Marilyn Terry, who was at the press conference and is a longtime advocate for a new shelter said, “This is good news.” 

“This has been a group effort for a lot of people for a long time,” Terry said.