Thursday, March 28, 2024

Partner Cities Break Ground on Regional Jail and Regional Animal Adoption Center

Southlake Assistant City Manager, Ben Thatcher, pictured 3rd from the right

Officials with Keller, Colleyville, Southlake and Westlake broke ground on the cities’ new Regional Jail and Animal Services facility the morning of Friday, March 1. The 21,000 square feet of expansions and renovations to the existing Keller Police Facility at 330 Rufe Snow Drive is budgeted at a cost of $8.6 million.

Construction plans reveal a complete transformation of the facility’s municipal court, holding facility and existing Animal Services area to provide additional room, security, technology and modernity.

Renovations to the regional holding facility will more than triple the number of cells, offer additional security for employees and short-term detainees, upgrade technology and even provide a kiosk at which family members and friends will be able to pay detainees’ bonds. The improved adoption center will offer about four times the current capacity for dogs and double the capacity for cats. The expansion will also include a 1,700-square-foot dog courtyard, a medical area for minor surgical procedures, a larger adoption and socialization area, and room to expand the center’s volunteer program.

Expansion of the adoption center follows the four cities’ merger of their Animal Services operations on Oct. 1, 2012. The cities of Southlake and Keller partnered on jailing efforts in 2007 after approving Tarrant County’s first merger of emergency dispatch services. Colleyville joined that partnership in 2010. The cities’ regional dispatch center, housed in Keller and known as the Northeast Tarrant Communications Center (or NETCOM), serves an area of more than 60 square miles and a population of more than 90,000. Keller police have been providing services to the Town of Westlake since 2002.

*Pictured above from left to right: Tom Soulsby, a founding member of the Keller Crime Control and Prevention District; Project Manager Chris Malone of Ratliff Construction; Hal Sargent of Brinkley Sargent Architects of Dallas; Mark Jones, chairman of the Keller Crime Control and Prevention District; Colleyville Mayor David Kelly; Keller Mayor Pat McGrail; Keller Councilmen Bill Dodge and John Hoffmann; Southlake Assistant City Manager Ben Thatcher; Keller Councilman Gary Reaves; and Keller Public Safety Director and Police Chief Mark Hafner.