Groundbreaking for a long-awaited replacement for the county's animal shelter is scheduled for 11 a.m. Jan. 28.

The ceremony at the Derwood site is the culmination of planning and budgeting for a facility that the county has delayed several times, most recently because bids for the project came in over budget.

County officials negotiated a $19.3 million price for the facility, with Gaithersburg-based Coakley & Williams Construction, reducing the bid price by a $1.344 million, and the facility is expected to open in late 2013.

The negotiated price for the nearly 47,000-square-foot main building, which would be almost twice the size of the current shelter, still includes an operational veterinary clinic and other features to make the building more efficient and healthy for animals held there. But the deal cut a livestock barn and separate feed storage facility from immediate construction plans.

Like the current shelter, the new facility will house the county police animal services division.

The county is working with Montgomery Partners for Animal Wellbeing, a nonprofit group formed to support the shelter and animals there, to get the facility fully outfitted. The county hopes to raise $2 million for it by the end of the year.

— Margie Hyslop