The City of Durant had a groundbreaking ceremony last week for a new animal shelter at 906 S.E. Third Avenue that is expected to be completed in 2027.
The city said the project represents years of planning, partnership and dedication that will provide a welcoming environment for animals in need while strengthening adoption, rescue, and care efforts across the community.
Mayor Martin Tucker said the city is very excited to get started on this valuable project, and he introduced Oklahoma State Rep. Cody Maynard.
Maynard said that when he was first elected four years ago, the first call he received was about needing improved animal shelter services.
“So, I’m extremely grateful for the mayor and for (city manager) Pam Polk to help get this resource for our com- munity,” Maynard said. “As we keep growing, we have to keep building bigger and better resources, so I just want to say that I’m extremely excited that we have this groundbreaking. So, thank you all so much for working on this.”
Tucker recalled when he was sworn into the city council along with Vice Mayor Mike Simulescu and former council member Lauran Fuller.
“We got to go on a tour of all of the city facilities that day,” Tucker said. “We were excited to see all of the great things that were happening in Durant and then we wound up at the animal control shelter and we thought, ‘This is not great,’ and after that meeting, we got together and said, ‘We’ve got to do something about this,’ and so we agreed that we would and obviously, if you’ve seen our current shelter, we have real heroes in animal control division that work out there and provide services to our city in the facility that such a terrible shape that it’s in.”
Tucker said that they went to work right then to see about getting an animal control facility that the city needs, and the community deserves.
“Three years later, a little bit more, here we are at a groundbreaking,” Tucker said. “We’re excited about it. It’s going to be a wonderful facility.”
At a special city council meeting in March, the council approved a $2,348,000.00 bid for the project from Mid-Plains Construction of Durant.
“A little over $2 million and people will say, ‘Well, that’s a lot of money for an animal control facility,’” Tucker said. “If you’ve not built anything lately, you might think that way. If you have built something lately you might say that seems like a pretty good price to me.”
Shane Knight of Theorem is the architect and engineer in charge of the project, and he thanked the city for allowing his company to be a part of the project.
“We do have a fantastic facility coming, and I’m excited about it,” Knight said. “The building’s at about 5,000 square feet, which I think is a little over 10 times the size of what you’re currently operating out of. The heroes in animal control, that’s not a word used very lightly, but you guys are absolute heroes for doing what you do.”
According to Knight, the facility will have 18 individual kennels for dogs that have direct access to outdoors and 16 kennels on the inside. He said some of them are large enough to house a mother and her litter. The facility also will have a little more than 20 feline kennels.
Knight said the shelter will have a room dedicated to animal intake where they can be evaluated and receive veterinary care.
“I know that everyone’s excited about that because I know each of these animals gets brought in and evaluated prior to going into the kennels so they’ll be able to get the proper medical care and that sort of thing before they come into the facility and I think probably one of the things that everyone’s most excited about is the adoption center,” Knight said. “So, City of Durant is now going to have a dedicated adoption center within this facility. We have a couple of indoor rooms that we call get acquainted rooms as well as an outdoor play space, so that folks that are interested in coming for the adoption of a cat or a dog, they have some facilities in here for these families to be able to come in and get acquainted with their potential pet before they take them home. So, I think that’s going to be a huge asset for getting some of these animals adopted right here in our own town.”
Knight anticipated construction will take approximately one year.
“So hopefully, all of you folks and many more will be back summer of ‘27 as we get some of these animals into their new home,” Knight said.
Thomas Seidel, owner/ president of Mid-Plains Construction, thanked the city for giving his company the opportunity to build the facility.
“We’re a general contractor here in Durant and which of course, takes us all over the state of Oklahoma, but it’s really special to be able to stay at home and build something here for our community and everybody gets to sleep in their own beds at night,” Seidel said. “I think on this project, we’ve got about a 75 percent local involvement as far as even down to the electricians and plumbers and painters is filled with people right here from Durant and the surrounding area and you know, those are the guys that are going to have to look you in the face at Walmart and everything so they want to make sure it lasts and is everything you’re looking forward to.
“So, we like to see that instead of having somebody else come in from out of town who’s here for the year and as soon as it’s over, they’re gone. So, we’re right here to not just take care of construction immediately but anything that might come up and hopefully as the city continues to grow you know, (we will build) phase two when we get to 10,000 square feet.”
