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DaLyn Marthaler releases a bald eagle at Willard Bay State Park on Friday, March 11, 2016, nearly two months after the bird was injured in a likely vehicle collision. The eagle, which was given the name "Aquila," was treated at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah.

Benjamin Zack, Standard-Examiner file photo

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The Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah's temporary facility as of late-August 2023.

Photo supplied

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OGDEN — As Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah officials wait on a business license from the city, work continues on a big step toward the future for the facility.

DaLyn Marthaler, WRCNU executive director and wildlife specialist, told the Standard-Examiner she is hoping to hear from the city soon on a business license for its temporary location on Washington Boulevard — that being the last prerequisite needed for an extension on their ordered eviction date. At present, the WRCNU has until Sept. 6 to vacate its current building on Park Boulevard.

“We are holding our breath like no other,” Marthaler said. “We do not (officially) have an extension yet and we are two weeks out. We’ve gotten through the planning department phase and we’ve acquired our permits to proceed with the steps necessary to get the business license.”

One snag is that a parking lot and landscaping must be implemented before the license is acquired.

“We’ve been assigned a liaison from the city to try to make this happen,” she said. “He’s pretty optimistic we can get that business license in time. That just seems like a huge feat.”

Marthaler said as of Thursday they were unsure of when a response will come, but in the meantime, work goes on preparing the temporary facility.

“Our community is so freaking awesome,” she said. “The general public is just coming out and sweating bullets and working so hard, it’s amazing. But there’s a lot of work to do.”

She said 3,000 pounds of debris — from old carpeting to other miscellaneous items — has been removed from the new facility so far. Cleaning, painting and flooring installation are all underway — while still finishing work with some of the creatures taken in by the center before the original facility’s closure.

“We currently have about 50 animals we’re still caring for,” she said. “We’ve got to still care for those animals — granted, it’s not 500 like we’d normally be caring for — but we still have some patients left, so we’re piecemealing it. We will come to the center and get the animals taken care of for the morning, then midday run over and work for a few hours and then run back here and take care of the animals. … We’ve made a huge amount of progress, but it’s slow going because we can’t just focus on just that.”

Marthaler said it’ll be months before the temporary facility will be able to take on animals — and there will still be a lot of work to do in the future.

“Even if we get that extension, it’s not over,” she said. “The facility we’re moving into is only a Band-aid. We’ll only be able to take 30%-40% of what we would normally take in, so that’s still a lot of animals that are left uncared for until we’re able to build something.”

Additionally, some animals, such as beavers, can’t be taken care of in the temporary facility.

As a result, she said, fundraising will need to continue on a grand scale. So far, around $300,000 has been raised over the summer.

However, a major fundraiser is coming up for the WRCNU.

According to Marthaler, several years ago a man called about a great horned owl he’d found in his driveway and would subsequently bring to the center for care.

“I truly did not recognize him until a friend of mine called me the next day and said, ‘Do you know who brought that owl to you?'” she said. “I was like, ‘I don’t know him. He was just a nice guy.’ She was like, ‘It was Bill Engvall.'”

Engvall, a comedian known for his work with the Blue Collar Comedy Tour and several television and film credits, is set to put on a show to raise funds for the WRCNU.

“Ever since then, every now and then he checks in and says, ‘Hi, how’s it going?’ And when he was out doing tours, if he had a wildlife question, he’d text me,” Marthaler said. “Spur of the moment, when we found all of this out and realized we were going to have to raise a lot of money really fast, I reached out to him. … I was like, ‘Hey Bill, this is what’s going on. Would you consider doing one of your shows for us as a benefit?’ No hesitation, not even the blink of an eye, ‘Yes, I’ll do it.'”

She said many tickets remain for the show.

“His final tour was last year,” she said. “He is coming out of retirement and doing this for us. Not only is it going to be an amazing show, but it’s an amazing cause.”

The show is set for 7:30 p.m. Oct. 7 at Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City.

For those interested in tickets, visit https://bit.ly/3YUBjbw.