Wine family gives $2.4 million to Healdsburg animal shelter

When wine icon Rodney Strong died three years ago, his obituary suggested donations to the Healdsburg Animal Shelter, as did his wife's death notice in 2003.

The couple also made sure in their will that the animal shelter would benefit. When their estate finally settled this summer, the directors of the shelter discovered they would receive more than $2.4 million from the Strong bequest.

"We knew we were a beneficiary. We didn't know the value of the assets,"said George Dutton, a member of the animal shelter's board of directors.

The Strongs' generosity will allow for construction of a new animal shelter in Healdsburg to replace a facility more than a half-century old.

"The community likes having a local animal shelter," said Healdsburg City Councilman Gary Plass. "There's always been the value of trying to keep it local."

The state-of-the-art building is planned across the road from the existing concrete block shelter on Westside Road, next to the city's corporation yard.

Construction is scheduled to begin in June for the 4,500-square-foot shelter and it will be ready for occupancy by the end of 2010.

The Strongs had no siblings and no children. Charlotte Strong used to say that the three things she loved most in life were her husband, her dogs and cooking, according to her obituary in The Press Democrat.

For decades, she was passionate about dog shows and showed old English mastiffs, huge dogs that can weigh 180 pounds. She also organized dog shows and judged for the American Kennel Club.

The city council voted last week to approve an arrangement that will allow the new shelter to get city water and sewer services, even though it is outside the urban growth boundary.

The Healdsburg Animal Shelter is buying the 3.7 acres on an old quarry site next to Dry Creek for $750,000 with escrow expected to be completed next month.

The shelter will then deed the parcel to the city, making it quasi-municipal property. In turn, the city will lease back the property at $1 a year to the shelter, for 55 years.

That allows the shelter to qualify for utilities, but there are restrictions against it being converted to other uses in the future.

A large wine warehouse and tasting rooms that are being developed at the same time on adjacent property under county zoning regulations are precluded from receiving city utilities.

The new shelter has not yet been designed, but directors want to have a play area for the dogs to run free and exercise, so they are not kept in cages the entire time as they are in the current shelter.

The plan is also to have a place where people who want to adopt an animal can visit with a dog or cat before making a decision.

"People coming to get an animal can interact with the animal, not see 20 barking dogs in cages, or 25 cats in one room," said Dutton. "They can have a one-on-one situation, get to know pets and make a better, more informed selection."

Animal shelter directors want to supplement the gift from the Strongs with a fund-raising effort to cover all the cost of the $3 million project and an endowment for sustained animal care.

Donations from the Healdsburg community now cover more than half of the shelter's budget of about $400,000.

The city also pays $122,000 annually to the shelter to provide animal control services within city limits.

The shelter handles about 500 animals annually, mostly dogs and cats, and the occasional snake or rabbit.

"We do everything we can to get animals into a good home," said Dutton, adding that the shelter has a 'no kill' policy and even takes animal from other shelters if they are in danger of being euthanized.

City officials in the past have considered contracting animal control services to the county, or Humane Society, but stuck with the Healdsburg Animal Shelter.