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Ebert veterinary office expands
By Ashley Luthern
YOUNGSTOWN
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Dr. Daniel Ebert and his wife, Ruth, opened Ebert Animal Hospital on Southern Boulevard in 1965. The hospital is expanding to add an exam room, larger reception area and handicap-accessible bathroom — a nearly 30 percent increase in building size. The project should be finished Oct. 1.
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Rio, a Sheltie, underwent surgery to remove a tumor. Ebert Animal Hospital sees about 50 pets, mostly cats and dogs, each day.
After 45 years on the city’s South Side, a local veterinarian is expanding his practice.
“I want to improve the South Side, rather than move out to Boardman or Austintown,” said Dr. Daniel Ebert.
Construction began in July to double the reception area, install a handicap-accessible bathroom and add another exam room — bringing the total to four. The work will increase the size of the building by about 30 percent and should be finished Oct. 1, Dr. Ebert said.
Ebert Animal Hospital was founded in 1965 at 3530 Southern Blvd. and sees about 50 pets, mostly cats and dogs, each day. Since then, Dr. Ebert and his wife, Ruth, who has run the front office from the beginning, have seen the collapse of the Youngstown steel industry, the rise of crime and the deterioration of their neighborhood.
“The last 10 years, it’s really gone downhill. Everybody’s moved,” Dr. Ebert said, adding that his practice, The Boulevard Tavern and True Tread Tire are the business anchors along the South Side section of Midlothian.
Dr. Ebert lived in a house next to his practice and his four children attended nearby St. Dominic School. He gave the house to Catholic Charities and moved to Poland because he couldn’t get away from his job living next door.
Dr. Ebert recently purchased the property back for the expansion project. An earlier project around 1990 added a surgical wing to the facility.
Dr. Ebert said he plans to hire more people, including another veterinarian. Dr. William Hradil and Dr. Anthony Shaw are associates at the animal hospital. Gary Paull has been a veterinary technician there for 40 years, and Denise Butler, Patty Dorinski and Sue Majer work in the office.
“We have a huge clientele. New clients seem to stay, which is a good reflection on all of us,” Majer said. “The clients are very loyal.”
One of Dr. Ebert’s traditions is to collect pictures of new clients with their pets and tuck them into a large frame hanging in the lobby. At age 74, Dr. Ebert, a 1961 alumnus of Ohio State University, plans to continue his tradition and has no plans for retirement.
“Retire to what?” Dr. Ebert asked. “If you like what you’re doing, then that’s where you should stay. ... This is a calling. I’m more comfortable here than anyplace else.”
Although the animal hospital’s sign has a hole from when a rock was thrown through it — “Some people are just destructive,” Dr. Ebert said — the crime in the area has not deterred the staff from its goal of growth and progress.
“This is a hopeful gesture. We started it, and I hope it’s a stimulus,” Dr. Ebert said.