Featured Ideas for a New Animal Shelter Location

The county is still looking for a suitable location for a new animal shelter, and Commissioner Blaine Wilcher has suggested both the former National Guard armory and contacting Stacey Harvey.

At the county’s health and welfare committee meeting Thursday night, commissioners discussed options for a new animal shelter location. The discussion was launched following an announcement of a wood donation.

“So there is hope of getting another location?” asked Pro and Lumber manager Jodi Cetwinkski.

“Right now our problem is that we have to find ground. The county doesn’t have any vacant land where we can go and build something right now,” County Executive Terry Bell said.

Bell says they will need two acres or more for the new site. Wilcher inquired about the old National Guard armory building, and Bell likes the place.

“If something were to happen and we got the National Guard building, the building would already be there,” Wilcher said.

“That would be ideal in my opinion. There it would be ideal, because that way you could work with the inmates,” Bell said.

Bell hopes the new location can be seen from the road as the current one is hidden. Wilcher says he likes the location of the shelter now, but he wants a better building.

“I’ve always said I love this place. I don’t like the building, but I like the location because most of the shelters I’ve been to are off the beaten path,” Wilcher said.

Wilcher also mentioned that he hated the idea of ​​building over the existing building if a new building was coming soon.

“Could we do more excavation work here if we have to sit here for years?” Cetwinkski asked.

“I don’t think you will have to sit here for years. We’ll have to find a place and you know how it is. We will have to make plans and it will be necessary to build, ”said Bell.

“Aren’t there any abandoned buildings? No metal buildings we can use? Cetwinkski asked.

“That’s the problem with Warren County. There are very few vacant buildings in the department. They were picked up,” Bell said.

Wilcher suggested contacting Harvey who had previously offered to donate material for an expansion at Animal Control. This arrangement fell through when former county manager Jimmy Haley asked to see the permits.

“Maybe it’s a good time to talk to Stacy Harvey again. We’ve had an expansion given twice in the last eight years and we couldn’t take it for some reason,” Wilcher said. has a possibility because they were willing to go twice and we couldn’t make it on our side.”

A new location was not decided at this meeting, and Bell encouraged everyone to keep an eye out for a suitable location.