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Friendlier confines planned for county dog pound
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"WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT WE HAVE A FACILITY THAT ALL THE ANIMAL [WELFARE] GROUPS IN THE AREA ARE COMFORTABLE WITH.” - John McNally IV, Mahoning County commissioner
AKRON
County and animal welfare officials will plan the fundraising and building design for expansion of the Mahoning County dog pound, using what they’ve learned from a visit to the state-of-the art Summit County animal-control facility.
On Friday, all three Mahoning County commissioners, county Dog Warden Matt Ditchey, philanthropist Mary Lariccia and executives of various county animal welfare agencies toured the new $3 million Akron facility, which opened last year.
“We have to make sure that we’re doing the right thing. We just can’t throw something up,” said Commissioner Chairman John A. McNally IV. Ensuring adequate ventilation and sufficient space for dogs, pound staff and volunteers will be top priorities for the Youngstown facility, he said.
Whatever architectural firm designs Mahoning County’s expansion should be experienced in animal-shelter design or work in partnership with a firm with such experience, McNally said.
The Akron facility was planned with the assistance of Animal Arts, a Boulder, Col., firm that has designed more than 600 animal-care facilities around the nation.
“We want to make sure that we have a facility that all the animal [welfare] groups in the area are comfortable with,” McNally said.
“They have a very nice flow” to the animal-handling process from intake to evaluation, vaccination and adoption at the Akron facility, Ditchey observed. “It’s a common-sense approach to this that seems to work very well for them,” Ditchey added.
Akron’s renovations began in December 2009 inside a former warehouse at 250 Opportunity Parkway, and 60 cats and 50 dogs were moved there from the former North Street location in August 2010. Today, the new facility houses 70 cats and 68 dogs.
The new Akron facility, funded by bond proceeds, features an administrative office, an intake area, an adoption zone, outdoor visiting space, quarantine quarters, a veterinary clinic and staff locker rooms. With dimensions of 4-by-6 feet, the kennels are entirely indoors, but there are two large outdoor fenced-in dog exercise areas.
The Summit County building also boasts several energy and environmental conservation features: a central kennel-cleaning system that reduces water consumption by almost 80 percent; pervious concrete to reduce storm-water runoff; daylight and occupancy sensors to limit energy consumption; and efficient water fixtures and air-handling units.
McNally and Ditchey said they were impressed by the cleanliness of the Akron facility.
Both said Akron’s system of separate entrances for animal drop-offs and animal adoptions should be used in designing Mahoning County’s dog-pound expansion.
“There’s a level of emotion different for somebody who’s adopting an animal vs. someone who may be forced to, for whatever reason, drop off an animal,” McNally explained. “You probably want to keep those in separate locations, just for the betterment of everybody.”
Ditchey hopes ground can be broken in 2012 for the expansion of the Mahoning County dog pound, 589 Industrial Road, that will provide more space for dogs and people.
Rather than the current system, in which dogs are confined in cages, dogs would be housed in kennels after the expansion.
Preliminary drawings for a $715,000 expansion in Youngstown show 55 new individual kennels, most of them being 31/2 to 4 feet wide, 14 feet long and 6 feet high with a cover. In those drawings, half of the 14 feet would be indoors and half outdoors.
Among the features of the expansion, which would go on the north and south sides of the 1970s-vintage Youngstown pound, would be a new service counter area to facilitate dog adoptions and dog-license purchases; a conference room; a handicapped-accessible restroom; an isolation room for dogs that may be ill; a euthanasia room; storage space; a dog bathing area; a separate area for mother dogs and their puppies; and two enclosed outdoor play areas for the dogs.
Lariccia has pledged to give $100,000 toward the Mahoning County dog pound expansion if the county commissioners will commit $400,000 in public money toward the project.
Ditchey said he hopes to fund the Mahoning County expansion through a combination of local public money, private donations and grants from the state or federal governments or from animal welfare organizations.
Ditchey said the project could be funded in part from Mahoning County’s dog and kennel fund, which is derived from fines for dog law violations and from dog license and adoption fees.
That fund, which is dedicated solely for the use of the dog warden’s office, contains more than $900,000, according to the county auditor’s office.
An Ohio Attorney General’s opinion has said Ohio law permits county commissioners to use the county dog and kennel fund to pay for dog-pound expansion and renovation.
Ditchey also said he would be open to a bond issue or a real-estate tax levy to fund the expansion, but a decision on those options is up to the commissioners.