The city of Pevely is purchasing a building for $1 million to use as its new Animal Control Office.
The Board of Aldermen approved the purchase of the Pawjamas Party Kennels building, 1194 Mason Circle in Pevely, at a March 16 meeting. The vote was 6-1, with only Ward 2 Alderman Ryan Tucker, voting against. Tucker chose not to run for reelection and left the board after the April 7 election. The other Ward 2 alderman, Rick Yount, did not attend the meeting.
In the summer of 2025, city officials tried to hire a company to build a new Animal Control facility to replace the existing one at 501 Dunklin Industrial Court, which has foundation and other problems.
During an Aug. 11, 2025, board meeting, aldermen decided all of the bids came in significantly higher than budgeted and declined to accept any of them.
“We budgeted $600,000 for (the construction project),” City Administrator Andy Hixson said. “Bids came in at the high $900,000s, if not a million.”
Months later, the owners of Pawjamas Party Kennels, Butch and Sharon Jones, approached the city about buying their kennel.
Hixson said the Pawjamas building came as a pleasant surprise.
“The Joneses approached us,” he said. “It was a much better deal to have a pre-built building which has almost 50 kennels to it with an already operating business (involving pets). So, it was a much better deal to spend $1 million on that than to build.”
Hixon added, “(The transaction) was completed last month, shortly after the board approved it.”
Mayor Steve Markus said city officials’ original idea to build a new facility on a portion of the property where the current Animal Control Office building sits would have meant a far smaller facility.
“We were going to build a new kennel,” Markus said. “The other one is falling apart. The one we were building was going to be eight kennels. Then, this came up when they called us.”
He said the Pawjamas building covers about 11,000 square feet, far more than the one the city would have built.
Hixson said he did not know exactly when the city will take over the Pawjamas building, but that should happen soon. Some work on it will need to be done before it becomes Pevely’s new Animal Control Office, he added.
“We hope to take complete possession by June 1,” he said. “We still have to (do renovations) to make it suitable for kennels for Animal Control.”
He said city leaders have not decided what they will do with the existing Animal Control Office building and property.
Markus said the city has made a good purchase.
“If we ever decide to sell it, we’ll get our money back, for sure,” he said. “The $1 million was what it was appraised at.”