By Adam Hocking

Editor

Marshfield Area Pet Shelter (MAPS) now has a temporary place to call home after the common council approved the lease to allow MAPS to occupy the old airport terminal building on the Marshfield Municipal Airport property. The lease had to be approved by the Bureau of Aeronautics, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the City Airport Committee before the council could give final approval.

MAPS will pay $500 per month plus utilities to rent the space, and the term of the lease is for three years with the possibility of seven one-year extensions after that.

MAPS could move into the facility as soon as July 1, though significant renovations need to be done to repurpose the building into a useable pet shelter. The eventual capacity of the facility will be for about 30 cats and five dogs. MAPS President Karen Rau has said that moving into the airport terminal is temporary and will not meet the full needs that MAPS hopes to fulfill with an eventual new facility.

About $40,000 will be spent by MAPS to repurpose the old airport terminal into a usable pet shelter, and the city may contribute $57,000 for an HVAC unit that would also be transferrable to a new facility as well as some other renovations.

“We’re excited. I guess somebody needs to pinch us,” Rau said. “To hear that this has been approved and to see the support from our city officials means a lot to us. It reiterates to us that they understand the importance of our project and the services that we are about to provide to the city.”