While local and state officials have expressed their desire to bring a regional animal shelter that would serve East Lyme, Montville and Waterford to the Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Facility in Uncasville, lawyers for the Department of Correction are concerned about the three towns' ability to pay for a shelter building.

Waterford Town Attorney Robert Avena said many of the complications are simply symptoms of the regionalization process, which requires coordination between multiple towns and state agencies.

"That's where the challenges have been," he said. "It's just getting everyone on the same page."

Lawyers from the state are hesitant to sign a long-term lease with the towns or approve their plan to build on the prison grounds until they know the towns will be able to pay to build the shelter, Avena said.

"They're not willing to go into it too deep without knowing that the three communities are willing to put some funds up," he said.

Waterford First Selectman Daniel Steward said the prison's warden and officials from the Department of Correction approve of the plan.

He said attorneys from the three towns continue to negotiate the issue with state lawyers.

According to the plan, animals found in the three towns would be taken to a facility on the prison grounds that would be leased by the towns and maintained by Corrigan-Radgowski prisoners.

The plan has drawn criticism from Waterford residents who say a central location in Montville would be inconvenient, and they wouldn't feel comfortable volunteering or visiting with children near the prison.

An ad-hoc committee composed of Waterford and East Lyme residents recommended building a regional shelter at the prison last year, and another committee composed of officials from all three towns was formed in February to assess the plan.

But state officials’ hesitation creates a chicken-and-egg problem for the town officials, who can’t develop designs or cost estimates for the building unless they have assurance from the state that it will allow them to build on the prison property.

"The issues that they’re saying is, ‘Do you have the money up front?’” Steward said. “There’s a Catch-22 in this. We have to know where it’s going, then we have to design it, then we have to fund it from all three towns.”

Avena said he hopes to arrange a meeting soon between the relevant people in Waterford, East Lyme and Montville at the prison so they can evaluate the potential shelter site and gather information for architects to design a proposal.

But then the local officials would have to decide among themselves which town would hire a design firm, and even then there may not be a guarantee of state approval.

The towns have a list of other sites that they could turn to in case they never get approval from the state to build at the prison, East Lyme First Selectman Mark Nickerson said.

“There is a plan B, there’s probably a plan C and D,” he said.

The status quo — a joint Waterford-East Lyme shelter in Waterford and a separate Montville shelter — also is an option in case no deal with the state can be reached, he added.

But the prison plan is still the priority, as long as the state and town attorneys can come to an agreement on a lease and who would be responsible for the property, Nickerson said.

“It’s a win-win,” he said. “It’s still what we’re aiming for.”

m.shanahan@theday.com