INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Metro Police Mounted Patrol is in need of a new horse barn and facility.
The Mounted Patrol is on a time crunch to secure the funding needed to build the new facility, or else the horses they ride and care for may not have a place to go.
The reason the IMPD Mounted Patrol is in a bind is that the city sold the land where the current stables are for the horses. The good news is the new owners of the land are allowing the Mounted Patrol to keep the horses in their current facility for the time being and are even donating 22 acres for the new facility.
But, they have to show progress towards getting the new $2 million facility built. At the moment, a lack of funding is holding the project up.
“We have until the end of the year to come up with the money and break ground,” said Sgt. Tyneka Sperry with the IMPD Mounted Patrol on WISH-TV. “e still have a couple more months to come up with the money and we are optimistic.”
Sperry said not only do they need a horse barn but also facilities for the officers to properly care for the horses and themselves.
“It’s actually kind of like a community center and offices,” she said. “We come in every morning, we clean stalls, we give horses baths, and all those things, so we’re in dirty clothes. Right now we don’t have a way to shower and get cleaned up. This new facility will give us all of those things.”
The new owners of the land where the current stable is are also donating $10,000 toward the facility. Sperry said the department has $600,000 in the bank and another $500,000 pledged from outside groups. That leaves a near $1 million budget gap to make up by the end of the year.
IMPD held a fundraiser over the week to help raise more of the money needed to build the new facility.
