(March 9) The county of Riverside will provide animal shelter service for the city of Fontana pursuant to a February 24 decision of the Fontana City Council.
The Fontana City Council elected to contract with Riverside County for the service after the county of Riverside tendered a $679,932 annual bid, which was nearly $70,000 lower than the city of San Bernardino’s $747,947 overture.
The city of Fontana’s most recent agreement for animal sheltering services with the city of San Bernardino expired on June 30, 2014, and the city was operating under a month-to-month agreement for animal sheltering services. The city of San Bernardino increased costs for its services by an additional fifteen percent as of July 1, 2014. As a result, staff sought out sheltering services bids from the city of Rancho Cucamonga, the county of Riverside, and the city of San Bernardino. The city of Rancho Cucamonga was not able to offer services due to the limited size of its facility and number of animals the city of Fontana shelters on average. The city of San Bernardino provided a bid of $747,947 annually for sheltering services only.
On February 24, the city council voted 5-0 to discontinue using the city of San Bernardino for animal services, and enter into a contract with the county of Riverside, allowing Fontana to save nearly $70,000 annually. Mandatory microchipping of all dogs and cats was a component of the new contract. As part of the new agreement for animal shelter services with the county of Riverside, Fontana is paying the county of Riverside a service fee of $49,393 monthly for animal sheltering services. In addition, the city is paying a monthly shelter operational and maintenance fee of $4,485 and an additional $2,783 a month for the deployment of the mobile clinic. The total amount of the contract through June 30, 2018 is $2,266,422. The cost for all services will be billed monthly throughout the term of the agreement.
Beginning on Monday, March 9, the Fontana Police Department’s animal services division began using the Western Riverside County/City Animal Shelter as the drop off location for lost and found pets.
Animals are no longer being transported to San Bernardino. The shelter is located at 6851 Van Buren Boulevard (south of Limonite Avenue) in Jurupa Valley. The phone number is (951) 358-7387 and the website is www.rcdas.org. Shelter hours are Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and closed Sundays and holidays.
As part of its services, Riverside will provide 12 deployments of its mobile clinic, comprised of six spay and neuter clinics and six shot clinics for pets.