The Richland County Dog Shelter will get new kennels that will give dogs more room and make it easier to clean thanks to the efforts of shelter volunteers.
The county commissioners on Tuesday accepted a donation of $24,267 from the nonprofit My Dog Shelter Friends that will pay for the purchase.
Dog Warden Missy Houghton told the board the money was raised through a GoFundMe drive and donated to My Dog Shelter Friends by a group of shelter volunteers who wanted to replace the kennels along the wall in the main shelter area to make better housing.
“The way that it is right now is they don’t really drain out so the floors stay wet longer,” Houghton said. “It’s essentially going to be the same setup, but the floors, you can adjust them so the water goes back towards the drains, and it will keep the floors drier, and it will be significantly larger for the dogs that are in there.”
Houghton said the new kennels will be 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide and will not have a partition in the middle like the current kennels, which are about 25 years old and were designed for smaller dogs.
“It’s newer-quality material than what we have currently and there will be about five or six kennels in a line,” she said, adding that the county maintenance department will install the equipment.
Nonprofit, volunteer efforts are making a big impact
Houghton told the board My Dog Shelter Friends is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that was established to raise money to assist dog shelters in the quality of life while the dogs are in the shelters.
“The woman who organized the 501(c)(3) has actually been doing fundraisers for our medical fund for the past several years, so she just incorporated into a 501(c)(3) so she could work on a broader scale,” she explained. “They’re donating money to help us purchase heartworm tests for the dogs. They’re giving us money to go towards medical funds, things of that nature.”
According to Ohio law, a county dog warden’s office is required to be self-supporting through fees and fines.Houghton said volunteers provide more opportunities for dogs in county care than the office and shelter would be able to provide with just self-sustaining funding.
"For the past four years they have covered any medical expense that we have incurred through Phillips Animal Hospital, so any dog that comes that has skin issues, infections, broken legs, needs surgery, all of that has been covered without our having to pay anything,” she told the board.
Houghton said volunteers also come in every day to make sure every dog gets walked.
“We have play yards now from fundraising from volunteers and the community where we’re able to put groups of dogs out in the play yard, which enhances their social skills and increases the adoptability of the dog because you can see how well they do with other dogs," she said." It makes their behavior in their kennels better because it reduces the stress."
Houghton said studies have shown that 20 minutes of a play group for dogs is more effective than a normal walk.
“We can get more dogs mentally stimulated and exercised throughout the day because of those volunteers and that’s something we would not be able to fund by ourselves.”
The Richland County Dog Shelter now houses 98 dogs. That figure is down from the all-time high of 143 dogs last year.
Commissioner Tony Vero said the board is pleased with the operation of the Dog Warden’s Office and the work by taxpayers and volunteers to step up and assist where necessary to help with a tight budget.
“We have a great group of volunteers that allows our shelter to care for a large number of dogs beyond what we usually have,” Vero said.
New sidewalks, landscaping planned at Longview Building
In other business Tuesday, commissioners accepted two quotes totaling $68,020 from Purdy Construction Co., of Mansfield, to replace sidewalks on the north and east sides of the Longview Building and do follow-up landscape work. The action came after they rescinded acceptance of quotes earlier this year from HK Concrete Creations for the sidewalk work and Liberty Lawncare and Landscaping for the landscaping.
Commissioners’ Chairman Darrell Banks said they tried to communicate with HK Concrete since accepting the company’s quote in March but have heard nothing back.
Commissioners said they vacated action on the Liberty Lawncare quote because the county was on a waiting list for the work and Purdy could do both jobs.
Commissioners also awarded a contract to Cargill Deicing Technology, of Cleveland, for winter road salt for the county highway department at a cost of $54.19 per ton. That compares to $64.38 per ton the county paid to Compass Minerals of Overland Park, Kansas, this past winter.
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