By Leah Murray

APARC says upgrades are needed to ensure animal health

Mar 7, 2017 | 4:11 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — It’s been open for just over one year but the Alberta Pound and Rescue Centre (APARC) is already in need of some costly renovations.

APARC took over pound services from the Medicine Hat SPCA in January 2016, after the SPCA decided it no longer wanted to provide the service for the City of Medicine Hat.

As part of the contract with APARC, the city needed to provide a space for the private company to operate.

The city purchased an old veterinary office located on South Railway Street.

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The building needed some repairs to the roof and some renovations done to the inside to fit APARC’s needs, but now there are concerns with the ventilation system.

City council is being asked to approve $500,000 on renovations to the building which will include upgrades to the ventilation, some remaining repairs to the roof of the building, as well as landscaping and signage.

APARC said the majority of the money will go towards the HVAC system.

General manager Kaylyn Genio said without proper ventilation the health of the animals is being put at risk.

“It cuts down on some of the airborne illness that comes around in here,” she said. “Because the animals we get in are stray, we don’t know what they are carrying, so we really want to be able to prevent the disease from spreading to anywhere else in the building.”

City documents indicate the cost of the upgrades was included in the 2017 budget.

City council will still need to give final approval for the expenditure.