York OKs Center for Wildlife’s $3.5M facility
Courtesy / Center for Wildlife
A rendering showing what the interior of the new 16,000-square-foot facility for the Center for Wildlife in Cape Neddick will look like when it's completed. The center's plans for a $3.5 million education center and medical facility have recently been approved by the York Planning Board.
The York Planning Board granted approval for the Center for Wildlife’s plans to build a $3.5 million education center and medical facility next door to its current Mountain Road home.
The York Weekly reported that plans call for breaking ground by August, pending permit approval from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
The demand for services, the space crunch, the commitments of a great team of architects and engineers are all driving the need to get building as soon as possible,” Kristen Lamb, executive director of the center, told the newspaper.
Fundraising through grants and donations stands at nearly $1.5 million. The center will launch the public portion of the fundraising campaign after the groundbreaking.
Last November, Emma Balina, the center's development director, told Mainebiz that while the current center has functioned as a medical clinic for the past 20 years, it was not designed for that use.
The planned facility will be 16,000 square feet, far larger than the current facility. It will house treatment areas, a visitor center with improved educational areas and revenue-generating space.
The center's staff and volunteers provide medical care, sanctuary and humane treatment for nearly 2,000 sick, injured and orphaned wildlife per year, until they can be released back into the wild. In addition to seven professional staffers, the center also has 80 volunteers, 30 college interns and four apprentices/fellows.
Demand for our services has increased significantly, especially in the last five years.
The current facility, which will be demolished, has a single exam room. The new building will have a triage room, an exam room, an X-ray room, a necropsy room, an infant nursery for baby animals, a juvenile nursery, and a wet room.
The expanded medical clinics are expected to more effectively treat animals and also to provide training opportunities.
It will also have a nature discovery center, an auditorium that can seat 120 people for indoor programs, classroom space and a conference room.
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