City, animal shelter agrees to ‘move forward’

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NIXON — In what’s been a two-year long discussion, Nixon city council and Passion for Paws animal shelter seemingly agreed to spark conversations again in an effort to move the shelter to a desirable spot that works for the city’s budget as well as the shelter’s wishes.

On Tuesday night, the three-hour long council meeting concluded with a nearly hour-long discussion of what went wrong with the talks between the city and the shelter.

“We made the offer to move [Passion for Paws] exactly as they are, not to shut them down, to another city location, with shade trees, and they were going to operate right now, just as they are, but they turned it down,” City councilman Justin La Fleur said.

The issues started back in 2016, when then City Administrator Manuel Zepeda applied for a grant to finance a new baseball field — current blueprints suggest it would be more than just a baseball field, but a city park with a basketball court and a track as well. Texas Parks & Wildlife representatives looked at the area of the proposed park and informed the city that “it was not in compliance by being on their land,” Zepeda told city council in June 2016.

Nixon held another town hall meeting, with one subject being the Passion for Paws dog shelter, in July 2017. At the time, Mayor Gladyne Finch explained the council was interested in moving the shelter to a new location, just off of Highway 80 near the sewer plant. Finch said the new location would be on a larger property, and that city would pay for the move — a figure Finch estimated to be around $30,000.

“The new place would have green grass and oak trees for shade,” she told the Inquirer in 2017. “[Passion for Paws] would have a place to grow and expand and develop.”

Finch said the move would allow the city to obtain a grant from Texas Parks and Wildlife to refurbish the baseball field. She noted that for health and safety reasons, TPW requires the shelter be moved away from the field.

Patsy Scherrer-Vigil, who owns Passion for Paws, had agreed to move under the condition that the city provide a new air-conditioned 30’x30’ building with kennels. But to do so would cost the city another $30,000 — something Finch says the city simply cannot afford.

“We have the money to move them so they can expand when they get the money to do so,” Finch said. “That would be a win-win for everyone.”

The relocation was discussed again at the city council meeting on Tuesday.

“I met with you personally,” city councilman Joseph Bjorgaard addressed Scherrer-Virgil, “and met with Michael and the city manager and we sat down and told them ‘hey here is what we can do, here is what we’re authorized by the vote of council’ and it is to move you whole, as you are now. that is the legal term we used. We are making you whole. What you are now, we are moving you out there.”

“In good faith, we really tried,” Bjorgaard explained.

Negotiations fell through after Passion for Paws’ lawyer sent a notice to council to “leave us alone.”

“It’s a workable place,” Scherrer-Virgil said at the meeting. “But we’ve got to be able to talk together among each other and agree on every single point.”

Scherrer-Virgil explained that a decision can’t be made that very night because she has a board of directors to discuss further options.

Council countered back, saying that discussions have gone for two years, and that after receiving a letter from Passion for Paws’ lawyer saying to “leave us alone,” the city did just that.

“We didn’t get a counter offer, we got a ‘leave us alone,’ so that’s what the city did,” Nixon City Attorney Eddie Escobar said. “We would have been opened to a counter offer in writing.”

Scherrer-Virgil pushed back, saying that Passion for Paws didn’t mean to end negotiations, but that is how the message was interpreted.

“What it sounds like is miscommunication,” Nixon councilman Marianne Fatherlee said. “So how do we rectify that? You just tied our hands.”

“If we are all in agreement, I am willing to negotiate and I am willing to move,” Scherrer-Virgil said. “But I have to get [with my lawyer], it has to be a legal process, just like it was before.

Though no official motion was made, both parties left the meeting with the intent of moving forward to resolve the issue of moving Passion for Paws.

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