The 102-page petition to reopen the Wodonga pound was received as a late addition to the January meeting's agenda.

It requests council "re-open the Wodonga Pound this year, by one of the two following proposed actions:

"Re-open the current pound facility in Wodonga and reinstate council funded pound services in Wodonga; OR

"Re-open the current pound facility in Wodonga and allow the rescue organisation, Wodonga Dog Rescue, to lease it to conduct local rescue activities."

The petition has 102 pages, and 224 of the petitioners have identified the Wodonga municipality as their location.

Wodonga dog rescue's Peta McRae raised the issue during the council elections, and volunteers met with mayor Kevin Poulton recently, after seeking advice from Cr Kat Bennett.

Cr Bennett said the petition's receipt was good timing, given work happening for the draft budget.

Cr John Watson noted that the pound was closed because "it wasn't up to standard".

Cr Ron Mildren successfully put forward an amendment to the recommendation - that the pound be considered in draft budget processes - to have a report done by council officers.

"Cost is a part of this ... but we also have issues of standards to deal with, issues of community expectations to deal with, and a whole range of other things," he said.

Chief executive Mark Dixon had suggested the draft budget process would capture investigations such as a cost-benefit analysis, but Cr Mildren sought a comprehensive report by staff which would canvass issues and options.

While a re-opening of a pound in Wodonga is not guaranteed as part of this process, council will consider the issue.

Meanwhile, a tender for the $685,350 Kelly Park redevelopment will be awarded for Alfonso, but only after federal government funding is locked in.

Chief executive Mark Dixon added a line to the recommendation councillors would vote on.

"The suggested change reads as follows: subject to this project being approved under the federal government's local roads community infrastructure program, the tender from Alfonso Building Solutions ... be approved," he said.

"We have a funding agreement already in place but we haven't finalised approval that criteria for Kelly Park fits into those funding guidelines.

"We're confident that will be the case but ... we won't proceed with the tender until we have that assurance."

Cr Ron Mildren said the process seemed over-the-top.

IN OTHER NEWS:

"My understanding of it is we're being guaranteed the money. But we've got to go back and get the individual projects under the guaranteed money approved separately to the actual overall grant, which we had to make application for in the first place," he said.

"I think it's a little convoluted. But nonetheless, I actually agree that we need to not go issuing tenders on projects until we've actually got the signed piece of paper that guarantees that the money can be used for that purpose."