Plans take shape for new animal shelter at Henry Pfeifer Community Center in Calverton

A plan to convert the Henry Pfeifer Community Center to an animal shelter is moving forward, Councilman James Wooten said yesterday afternoon at the Calverton site.

Wooten, the town board liaison to the animal shelter, met there with Riverhead Move the Animal Shelter founder Denise Lucas and local builder Richie Cox to review a floor plan Cox prepared for the shelter.

The floor plan prepared by Cox shows 25 five- by eight-foot kennels for dogs. The facility will also provide shelter for cats, something the Town of Riverhead has never undertaken.

The new shelter would be operated by the North Fork Animal Welfare League. Wooten said he’d like to see the town lease a portion of the community center site to the NFAWL for construction of a spay and neuter clinic, The cost of the clinic construction would be borne by the NFAWL, which received a $300,000 bequest for that purpose.

There’s plenty of room outside the building for fenced, outdoor dog runs, too, Lucas said.

“I’m very excited,” she said.

Wooten said he intends to present the floor plan to the full town board to gain the members’ conceptual support at an upcoming work session.

The board last discussed the idea at a February work session and, though some members raised concerns — like compliance with the state Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers Act, or the isolated location of the community center — Wooten said he thought a majority of the board embraced the idea.

Lucas said she would like to break ground on the renovation work in September, but Wooten told her yesterday that’s not feasible.

“The government permits will take time,” Wooten said. The town will have to prepare fully engineered plans and specifications, he said, and the plans must be approved by the county health department and state DEC. “It will probably be January” before construction can begin.

The councilman said he has not yet contacted the county health department to find out if it would require changes to the existing septic system at the community center, or the state DEC about the WSRR requirements.

“I’m just getting the floor plan today,” Wooten said.

The town engineering department would prepare detailed plans for the work, the councilman said, The town built the center so the engineering department has all the data in its files, he said.

No estimated cost has yet been worked up for the project, Wooten said. But between donated labor and materials, Wooten said he does not anticipate any part of the cost being absorbed by Riverhead taxpayers, except for in-kind services by the town engineering and buildings and grounds departments.

Wooten said some of the labor is being donated by unions or union members, so the project will meet the standards of the prevailing wage law.

Lucas took it upon herself to raise money for a new animal shelter after a 2011 visit to the town’s existing facility on Youngs Avenue left her in shock at the conditions there.
She formed the Riverhead Move the Animal Shelter group and began fundraising two years ago this weekend. Lucas has raised about $80,000 so far, she said. But about half of that has been spent on fencing and outfitting the town’s two new dog parks, building an outdoor lean-to at the Youngs Avenue shelter, purchasing a storage trailer and other miscellaneous expenses, she says.

The fundraising will continue, Lucas said.

“When people see we have a site, a definite plan and progress is being made, they’ll be more willing to continue giving,” she said.

Wooten said he would bring the plan before the town board soon, but might wait until after the town engineering department prepared more detailed plans for the project and after he gets answers from the county health department and the state DEC on their requirements for the project, so the town board would have all the information before it.

Photo captions, from top: 1. RMTAS founder Denise Lucas outside the Henry Pfeifer Community Center in Calverton, which she hopes is the future home of the Riverhead Town animal shelter; 2. Councilman James Wooten, town board liaison to the animal shelter, and RMTAS founder Denise Lucas look at the floor plan prepared by Lucas’ friend and RMTAS supporter Richie Cox; 3. Photo of the floor plan sketch.

RiverheadLOCAL photos by Denise Civiletti