City moving forward with Vali 3 Theater sale process

MONTE VISTA — The City Council initially agreed to additional funding for Conour Animal Shelter but decided to wait and work on it in the next budget cycle in January. The council also continued talks of getting out from under the Vali 3 Theater during their Sept. 1 meeting.

Brittany Harlan, the vice president of Conour Animal Shelter, gave a presentation on the shelter and asked the council if more funding for the shelter was available.

“We are running low on funds to be able to take care of our intake dogs for Monte Vista,” Harlan said. “We are putting efforts out there. We are not just solely relying on the contract that we currently have with you to care for these animals. We have applied and we are doing grants, we have El Pomar, we have Outcalt, we do one every year with Colorado Gives, we have the Bates Foundation.”

Harlan said that overall, the cost of operating the shelter every year was about $180,000. Harlan explained that animals that are brought from other counties are required to pay their contract fees to the shelter, but there are a lot of other fees the shelter must pay.

“We also ship dogs out to all areas of Colorado. We are doing everything in our power to ship dogs out too,” Harlan said. “We have a partnership with other places. We also do adoption events. We have also worked with 9 News. These are the efforts we are putting out to adopt animals out.”

Harlan said that the average stay for an animal in the shelter before being adopted was a minimum of 46 days. She explained how it was about $12 a day to care for the dogs, and how this amount is due to the gracious efforts of many local dog food donations that have been given to the shelter.

Harlan said the shelter has two full-time employees and said a third employee would be helpful to ensure the best care for all the animals at the shelter.

Harlan said they raised adoption fees a little to help with their costs but also wanted to be fair about the prices for adoption.

Harlan said more kennels were needed as the transfer of dogs to Colorado has been large, because it is a no kill state in many areas.

City Manager Gigi Dennis asked if there was room in the shelter for animal control officers to get new dogs in if needed, as this had been a concern for a while in Monte Vista.

“Yes, we do have a few kennels set aside specifically for that,” Harlan said. 

Harlan said the shelter hasn’t asked for money in a while and would appreciate any additional help from the city.

Council members asked if there was a specific amount of money that the shelter was requesting.

Harlan said an extra $250 per month would help.

The Council agreed to the extra amount but then said that they would wait until the next budget cycle in January for final approval.

At the same meeting there was more discussion about the Vali 3 Theater. Dennis explained that a specific plan was necessary to nail down how the Vali 3 Theater would be sold, auctioned off, or given away.

The council decided that a Request for Proposal (RFP) would go out the week of Sept. 5. The RFP would be posted on the City of Monte Vista website and in other various local media places.

Open houses will be held on Sept. 12, from 4 to 6:30 p.m., and on Sept. 14, from 7:30 to 10 a.m. Dennis explained that at the open houses a fact and inventory sheet will be given out and will also be available at City Hall. She also stated that the theatre will be sold “as is”.

Proposals will be due to City Hall on Oct. 26, at 5 p.m.

All applicants will be scheduled for a presentation of their proposal at the Nov. 3 City Council meeting. Dennis said that these meetings would be open to the public. At the meeting, applicants will be asked questions, and be given time to respond.

The council was open to all proposals. No price has been set for the movie theater. The main objective of the sale was to keep it as a movie venue and entertainment center for the downtown area.

The final vote on the theater will take place on Nov. 17. Anyone with questions on the process was asked to contact City Clerk-Recorder Unita Vance at City Hall. 

The next City Council meeting will be held on Sept. 15.