City Council members voted 5-2 Thursday to, among other items, grant an extension to Austin Pets Alive!’s lease on the former City of Austin Town Lake Animal Shelter. The resolution ultimately allows the group to repair the facility and occupy it while the master plan for the Lamar Beach area comes together. The TLAC facility would still “come down,” in the words of item lead sponsor Council Member Mike Martinez. The opposing votes belonged to Mayor Lee Leffingwell and Council Member Bill Spelman. Leffingwell moved to limit the extension to September 2015 amid concerns from City of Austin Animal Services Director Abigail Smith, who worried that APA could not come up with funds for necessary repairs. Spelman sought a compromise to set the extension at a year. As the Monitor first reported last week, the TLAC facility failed a recent state inspection.
Mike Kanin is the Publisher of the Austin Monitor. As such, he doesn't report on much--aside from the workings of the Monitor--any more. In his previous life as a freelance journalist, Kanin has written... More by Michael Kanin